Saint Pionius

Memorial

• 11 March
• formerly 1 February

Profile

Priest. Noted scholar and preacher. During the persecutions of Decius, Pionius and fifteen followers, hearing they were about to be arrested, spent the night of 22-23 February 250 in prayer; they were arrested in the morning at the end of Mass. They had put on their own chains and shackles to make it obvious that they were prisoners, and not going to aposticize. Every time he was taken into public, the courts, or anywhere out of his cell, Pionius preached faith to the Christians, civility to the pagans. Racked and torn with hooks to make him sacrifice to pagan gods; he refused. Martyr.

Born

• at Smyrna, Turkey

Died

• nailed to a stake and burned alive on 12 March 250

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

• Bibliothèque nationale de France: 15th-century illustration of the imprisonment, trial and martyrdom of Pionius
• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Catholic Online
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• Medieval Religion Listserv, by John Dillon
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint Pionius“. Saints.SQPN.com. 10 March 2013. Web. 19 May 2013. <>