Irenaeus, St (2)

Irenaeus, St another martyr, was bishop of Sirmium (now Sirmish, a Hungarian village), his native country, at the beginning of the 4th century. Many inducements were offered him by the then governor of the country, Probus, who, no doubt, acted under instructions from the emperors Diocletian and Maximus, to renounce Christianity, but, all proving futile, he was at last beheaded, after having been subjected to various tortures. Though but little is known of this Irenaeus's personal history, it is evident, from the efforts of the governor to secure his adhesion to the heathen practices, that he was a man of great influence. The date of his death is not accurately known. Some think it to be March 25, the day on which his death is commemorated by Romanists; others put it April 6, A.D. 304. See Hoefer, Nouv. Bioq. Géneralé. 25:948; Ceillier, Hist. des aut. sacr. 3:27; Butler, Lives of the Saints, 3:651 sq.; Real-Encyklop. f. d. Kathol. Deutschland, v, 715 sq.