Saints
“Diomedes of Tarsus”
Physician of Tarsus · Unmercenary · Martyr under Diocletian
A physician of Tarsus in Cilicia who treated bodies for nothing and used the visit to speak about Christ, and who baptized a great many of the people he had healed. He was arrested under Diocletian and died on the road before the sentence could be carried out, and the soldiers beheaded the body anyway.
His life
He was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, the Apostle Paul's city, was trained as a physician, and practiced without taking payment, which is why the Church numbers him among the Unmercenaries. He treated whoever came, and while he treated them he preached, and the accounts say that a large number of his patients were baptized.
He moved to Nicaea in Bithynia and continued there. Under Diocletian he was denounced, and soldiers were sent from the emperor to bring him.
They found him on the road outside the city. The account says he asked leave to pray, prayed, and died where he knelt. The soldiers, who had orders to produce him, cut off the head and carried it back, and were blinded on the road; when the emperor ordered the head returned to the body, their sight came back and they were baptized.
The Church keeps his memory on the sixteenth of August, and he is commemorated in the Orthodox tradition among the holy physicians, with Cosmas and Damian, Panteleimon and Hermolaus.
Holy St. Diomedes the Physician, pray to God for us.