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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 1, Of the Holy Photinus, Hirineus, and the Other Martyrs of Lyons
The first among these was Photinus, bishop of Lyons, who, full of days and tried by diverse tortures, suffered for the name of Christ. The most blessed Irenaeus, successor of this martyr, and sent to the city by the blessed Polycarp, shone forth with admirable light and virtue. In a brief space of time, chiefly by his preaching, he made the whole city Christian. But on the coming of persecution the Devil maintained such wars there by the hand of a tyrant, and so great a multitude of Christians were murdered there for confessing the Lord’s name, that the streets ran with streams of Christian blood, so that we are unable to tell their number or to collect their names; but the Lord hath written them in the Book of Life. This executioner, after causing divers tortures to be inflicted on the blessed Irenaeus in his presence, dedicated him by martyrdom to Christ the Lord. After Irenaeus, forty-eight other martyrs suffered death, of whom we read that Vettius Epagathus was the first.