Joyful Light: Saint Haralambos - the priest martyred at age 113

Saint Haralambos was astonishing given the span of his life and the brutality of his martyrdom. As the leader of the Church of Magnesia, he was a fearless preacher of the gospel who won many souls to Jesus Christ, thereby attracting the ire of the regional proconsul. But why ravage the body of an old man so near death? What possible threat could he have posed against an Empire? What purpose would be served by scraping the weathered flesh off the body of an old man?