Hippolytus was one of those baptized by St. Lawrence. He was arrested in his own house while he was taking the Holy Communion. He was brought before the Emperor Valerian, and, when he was asked by him touching his religious profession, he freely confessed that he was a Christian. Wherefore he was beaten with clubs, but when his faith was found only the bolder under the blows, he was temped with promises of gifts and honours. Then when words were found only to be thrown away upon him, he was given over to the Prefect to be put to death. The Prefect went to the house of Hippolytus to take possession of his goods, and there found that all the household were Christians. He strove in vain to awe them into the denial of their faith, and then ordered Concordia, the nurse of Hippolytus, who was encouraging the rest, to be beaten to death with whips loaded with lead, and afterward the others to be slain outside the gate that leadeth toward Tivoli. Hippolytus was tied to wild horses which dragged him through rough places full of briars and thistles, until with a mangled body he resigned his soul to God. Justin the Priest buried him along with the others. On the same day, at Imola, the martyr Cassian was put to a most cruel death. He was a schoolmaster, and was given up to his scholars, with his hands bound behind his back, to be stabbed and torn to death with steel pens. Owing to the weakness of the means, the suffering of his martyrdom was very grievous and long, and his palm all the more glorious.
