Aphrodisius was an early Christian martyr of Cilicia, the southeastern coastal region of Asia Minor, commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox calendar on June 21. He is venerated chiefly within the Greek tradition and appears on that date alongside the better-attested Martyr Julian of Tarsus, who is also from Cilicia; the calendars list the two together without specifying a relationship between them.
Historical detail about Aphrodisius is sparse. The synaxarion records that he was a native of Cilicia who openly confessed Christ and was subjected to severe torture for his faith during the pre-Nicene persecutions, but it preserves no firm dates, no name of a presiding magistrate, and no account of his family or early life. His name is shared on the same day with a female martyr, Aphrodisia, in some calendar listings.
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Martyrdom
According to the synaxarion tradition, when Aphrodisius refused to renounce Christ he was handed over to torture, and a lion was loosed against him in the arena. The account relates that the beast would not harm him; by tradition it is said to have spoken with a human voice, rebuking the cruelty of his persecutors. Many of those who witnessed the wonder are said to have come to faith and to have been martyred in turn.
The tradition records that Aphrodisius himself was finally put to death by being crushed beneath a large stone. As with much of the pre-Nicene martyrology, these details survive only in the brief synaxarion notice rather than in a contemporary court record, and the saint's profile remains that of an honored but obscurely documented confessor of Cilicia.
