PROCOPIUS, St., Martyr. — Commemorated by the Greeks and Latins on July 8.
According to Eusebius, he was the first martyr of Caesarea in Palestine during the persecution of Diocletian, though he is said to have died on June 7. A native of Jerusalem, he lived in Scythopolis, serving as a reader and exorcist. When the persecution broke out, he was arrested and taken to Caesarea before the judge Flavian. When asked to sacrifice to the gods and honor the majesty of the emperors, he courageously refused, even quoting Homer’s line that it is better to have one king than many (Iliad, II, 204). For this, he was condemned to death and beheaded.
BIBL.: Eusebius, *De martyribus Palaestinae*, I: PG, 20, 1460–64; *Acta SS. Julii*, II, Paris 1867, pp. 551–56; *Martyr. Hieronymianum*, p. 308 ff., 359; *Martyr. Romanum*, p. 277. Agostino Amore