Potitus of Sardica

Potitus (died around 160) was an early Christian martyr, venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church on 14 January (or 13 January in the pre-2003 Roman Martyrology).

Life He was born in Sardica (now Sofia, capital of Bulgaria) in the Roman province of Thracia (established in 107 after the Second Dacian War and later renamed Dacia Inferior). He converted to Christianity and was martyred while still a teenager during the reign of Antoninus Pius. His hagiography states that he came from a very rich pagan family and attributes many miracles to him, especially the curing of the madness of Antoninus Pius' daughter Agnes, which is described in a 9th-century Passio Sancti Potiti. He refused to renounce Christianity and so was thrown to the lions, but they refused to attack and so he was instead thrown into boiling oil, but emerged unharmed. He was therefore pierced with a sword.