Saint of the Day, June 1

Saint Justin (c. 100–165), a Samaritan philosopher, sought the truth through every school of Greek thought before encountering an old Christian on the shore at Ephesus who pointed him to the Hebrew prophets. Convinced that Christianity was the true philosophy — the very Logos in whom Plato and the prophets had spoken in part — he opened a school in Rome and wrote the first great apologies to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the senate. His First Apology contains the oldest detailed description of Sunday Eucharist that survives. Denounced under Marcus Aurelius, he was scourged and beheaded with six companions; the genuine court record of his interrogation has come down to us.