The Holy Martyr Philosophus.

Commemorated May 31 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

This martyr of Christ's was born near Alexandria. During a persecution of Christians, Philosophus refused to renounce Christ the Lord before the pagan princes and judges, and they therefore inflicted terrible tortures on him. After he had been tortured in various ways, they finally placed him on a soft bed, bound hand and foot, and put a harlot in with him to entice him into sin. When Philosophus felt passion awakening in himself through the touch of the woman's hands, he took the tongue between his teeth, bit it through and spat it out in the harlot's face. His passion was extinguished and the harlot was so aghast that she fled from him at once. He was afterwards beheaded with the sword, in about 252, whilst still young in years, and entered into the Kingdom of eternal youth. (In the Greek Prologue, St Philosophus is commemorated on May 1st.).

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK