Heron, Ater, and Isidore, Burned for the Faith

Heron, Ater, and Isidore, Egyptians by birth, and a youth of fifteen years, called Dioscorus, were handed over to the judge of Alexandria at the same time. The judge examined the youth first, supposing it a very easy matter to persuade him, or to deceive him with fair words, or, if not in this way, to move him by torments (many of which, as Eusebius says, were inflicted on him), to deny the Christian faith. But this excellent youth, Dioscorus, could not be induced, either by fair words or by the force of torments, to obey the judge.

The three men, namely Heron, Ater, and Isidore, the judge had most cruelly scourged, and examined with all manner of stripes, intending to draw them away from the faith; but when he saw that because of their faith in Jesus Christ they bravely endured all the torments, he handed them over to the executioners to be burned alive; except the youth Dioscorus, whom he released, because of his courage as well as the astonishingly discreet answers which he gave to every one of his questions; saying that in consideration of his youth he would overlook his stubbornness for the present, so that in the meantime he might think the matter over, and repent. But the ancient writers state that, when he came to the church of Jesus Christ, God appointed him to be a bulwark and a comfort to His people; awaiting a longer and harder conflict, and a greater and fuller reward; for which reason, as well as because of his earlier sufferings, he was counted among the pious martyrs. See the authors and books mentioned above.