ESPERO E ZOE, SANTI, MARTIRI

ESPERO and ZOE, saints, martyrs. — They are commemorated together with their children TEODULO and CIRIACO on May 2. They were servants of a certain CATALO, a pagan, who took them with him from Rome to Attalia in Pamphylia. One day the two young sons, intolerant of their master’s yoke, openly declared themselves Christians, but Catalo sent them along with their mother to one of his country estates. There, on the occasion of the birth of a son to Catalo, they refused to eat meat that had been sacrificed; consequently they were summoned by the enraged master, and since they persisted in their refusal and professed their Christian faith, Catalo first had the two youths scourged in the presence of their mother, then had all four cast into a burning furnace. Their martyrdom is said to have taken place during the reign of Hadrian. At Constantinople, Justinian had a church built in honor of Z.