Dioscurus was serving as a lector in an Egyptian church when he was arrested by the pagan authorities of the Roman Empire. He was tortured at Kynopolis with exceptional barbarity. The torturers pulled out his nails and held flaming torches to his sides. In the midst of Dioscurus' sufferings, a mysterious beam of light suddenly appeared, streaming down from a sector of the sky opposite to the position of the sun, and hence of unexplainable origin. This prodigy startled his torturers, who fell to the ground in terror, giving the martyr a momentary respite. But soon the torturers resumed their onslaught, and Dioscurus died after hot iron plates were pressed against him.
