السيرة
St. Agathon the Martyr was the eldest of the five children of the holy and God-fearing mother Rebecca (Refka). The family came from Kemola in the district of Qus in Upper Egypt. Agathon was a man of high standing and great honour in his city, and together with his mother and his four siblings — Peter, John, Amun, and Amuna — he was renowned for piety and good works.
Before their contest, Christ appeared to the family and revealed that they were to attain the crown of martyrdom in Shoubra near Alexandria, and that their bodies would afterward be carried to the city of Nakraha in the province of El-Behairah. Strengthened by this vision, their mother Rebecca confirmed her children in the faith, and the family distributed their wealth to the poor and the needy in preparation for their departure to the Lord.
The saints were first brought before Dionysius, the governor of Qus, who interrogated and tortured them. Rebecca endured her sufferings with steadfast courage, and her five children followed her example without wavering. The governor then sent them to Alexandria, where the governor Armenius subjected them to severe and prolonged torments — their bodies were hacked, they were cast into boiling cauldrons, bound to the wheel, and crucified head-downward — yet the Lord preserved them whole and unharmed through every torture.
At the last, Armenius commanded that they be beheaded and their bodies cast into the sea. By the command of an angel, a devout and wealthy man from Nakraha recovered the holy bodies. A church was later built for them in Sonbat, known as "The Five and Their Mother" (El-Sitt Refka), where many miracles were worked through their relics.
The Coptic Church commemorates the martyrdom of St. Agathon together with his mother Rebecca and his siblings on the 7th of Tout.