In the year 247 St. Dionysius was chosen Bishop of Alexandria. Soon afterward, the people of Alexandria, incited by a pagan prophet and given further impetus by an edict of the Emperor Decius, began a fierce persecution of all Christians. St. Dionysius was himself hunted and escaped only through the aid and insistence of a wedding party of pagans. St. Dionysius wrote an account of this persecution to Fabian, Bishop of Antioch. In it he states that many Christians fled into desert and there perished from the elements, from hunger, thirst, and over-exposure, or from wild beasts and wild men. Others were captured and sold into slavery.
The Saint especially mentions Chaeremon, Bishop of Nilopolis, a very old man who took refuge in the mountains with a companion. Although a search was made in the mountains of Arabia by the Christians, nothing was ever again heard or seen of either of them after 250.
The bishop and his companions are listed as martyrs.
PRAYER: May the prayers of Your Bishop St. Chaeremon make us pleasing to You, Lord, and strengthen Your truth. Amen.