Martyr Carterius of Caesarea

Carterius was a Christian of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in Asia Minor, who is remembered as a teacher and priest and as a martyr of the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. He is commemorated on January 8, the day on which the tradition places his death, generally dated to around the year 304.

According to the synaxarion account, Carterius was brought before the authorities for his confession of Christ. The tradition relates that he stood before a statue of the Egyptian god Serapis and prayed to Christ, at which the idol shattered to pieces. The procurator Urbanus then ordered that he be subjected to torture.

After his tortures Carterius was put to death. The accounts differ on the manner of his execution: by the more common report he was beheaded, while some sources relate that he was killed with a spear. He is honored among the martyrs who suffered in Cappadocia under the early-fourth-century persecution.