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The Armenian Apostolic Church on Monday, June 29, commemorates Sts. Antoninus, Theophilus, Anicetus and Potinus, Qahana.am reports.

St. Antoninus lived in Alexandria in the third century.  He was arrested following his open declaration of being a Christian, and since he would not offer sacrifices to idols.  He was subjected to severe torments and then thrown into a fire to be burned alive.  He said to his captors prior to his death, “Remember that you have a soul given to you by God; see that you present it pure before the Lord.”

Deacon Theophilus from Libya was a successor to St. Stephen the Protomartyr.  He was martyred during the reign of the idolater Emperor Maximianus, for his fearless preaching of the Christian Gospel.

Two noblemen from Nicomedia, Anicetus and his nephew Potinus, attending a ceremony of the reading of Emperor Diocletian’s persecutions which awaited Christians, boldly emerge from the crowd and loudly confess their faith before the Emperor.  Following three years of imprisonment and cruel torture, they remain loyal to Christ.  As a result, the blessed saints are burnt alive together with other martyrs.