Timothy came from Antioch to Rome in the time of Pope Melchiades. He had preached the faith of Christ, there for a year, when he was thrown into irons by Tarquinius, Prefect of that city. After suffering a long imprisonment he was brought to the idols to offer them sacrifice. He refused right boldly to commit this great sin, and was thereupon savagely scourged, and his raw body covered with quick-lime. He steadily persisted in his testimony under these and other tortures, and at last was beheaded. His body is buried upon the road to Ostia, hard by the sepulchre of the blessed Apostle Paul.
On the same day, under the Emperor Alexander, and at Ostia, Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, on account of his illustrious confession of the faith, had his hands and feet bound, and was thrown into a deep pit full of water, and so received the crown of his testimony. The Christians buried him there. Also on the same day, under the Emperor Aurelian, and at Autun, the young boy Symphorian was tortured in divers ways for professing the same faith. As he was being led to die, he heard his mother crying out to him: My child, my child! think of life eternal! Look to heaven and to him that reigneth there! Thy life is not being taken away, but changed for a better. And so, for Jesus Christ's sake, he bravely offered his neck to the executioner.
