Hieromartyr Aristion of Alexandria

Aristion was a second-century bishop and martyr commemorated on September 3. According to the synaxarion tradition, he was born early in the second century at Aribazo, a town in the eparchy of Apamea in Syria, to pagan parents who raised him amid idolatry. He later served as bishop of Isso in Cilicia, a see known in the tradition as Alexandria the Lesser, identified with the city the anchor records as Alexandria Scabiosa, modern Iskenderun.

The tradition relates that Aristion was led to the Christian faith in his youth by a boy named Anthony of Apamea, himself later venerated as a martyr, who instructed him in the truth despite the dangers of the time. Consecrated bishop, Aristion is remembered as a diligent shepherd who cared for the souls of his flock.

During the persecutions of the period, the ruler of Alexandria had Aristion arrested as a Christian. When he refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods and confessed Christ, he was sentenced to death by fire. The synaxarion accounts state that a furnace was prepared and the bishop was cast into the flames, where he is said to have continued singing hymns until his death. The year of his martyrdom is traditionally placed around 167.