MAY 20
The Martyrs Asterius, Alexander, and Thallelaeus lived during the reign of Numerian (283-284). The prefect of the city of Aegea sent soldiers to seek out Christians. Thallelaeus, an eighteen-year-old blond-haired youth, was brought before him. The young man expressed his willingness to suffer and die for Christ.
The enraged prefect ordered the two torturers Alexander and Asterius to bore through the martyr’s knees, pass a rope through the bone, and suspend him head downwards. But the executioners, by God’s design, bored into a block of wood, which they hung up in place of the martyr. When the prefect saw that they had deceived him, he then ordered that Alexander and Asterius be whipped. They also confessed themselves Christians and glorified God. The prefect ordered them to be beheaded, and so they received the unfading crown of martyrdom around 284.
