And when Severus too was stirring up persecution against the churches, splendid martyrdoms of the champions of piety were accomplished in every place, but they abounded most of all at Alexandria, whither God's athletes were escorted, picked for their valour, from Egypt and the whole Thebais, as to some greatest arena, and through their most steadfast endurance of varied tortures and modes of death were wreathed with the crowns laid up with God. Among these Leonides also, called the father of Origen, was beheaded, leaving his son behind him while still very young. It will not be out of season to relate briefly what was that son's disposition toward the divine Word from that time, especially since the report widely noised abroad about him among the many is great.