Saint Pausilypus was a Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

 of the 2nd century. He was condemned to be beheaded

Decapitation

Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...

 under Emperor Hadrian; however, the chains in which he was bound fell from him on the way and he miraculously escaped from his persecutors. He died soon after, about 140 AD at Heraclea Sintica

Heraclea Sintica

Heraclea Sintica was an ancient Greekcity in Thracian Macedonia, to the south of the Struma River, the site of which is marked by the village of Rupite, Bulgaria, and which was identified by the discovery of local coins....

 in Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

, as a result of the torture inflicted on him by his captors.

When commemorated on his own, his feast is April 8; when commemorated with the Roman Martyrs, April 15.