Mamas (Greek Mamas) was — per the universal Cappadocian-Cypriot tradition — born in prison at Gangra to two Christian parents (Theodotus and Rufina) who had been imprisoned for their faith. Both parents died in prison shortly after Mamas's birth; the infant was rescued and raised by a wealthy Christian widow named Ammia, who became his foster mother.
As a youth Mamas became a shepherd in the Cappadocian highlands above Caesarea, where he was famous for his ability to live in solitude with wild animals (lions and deer became his companions per the medieval tradition). He was eventually arrested during the Aurelian persecution (c. 275) as a Christian. The pagan judge demanded that he pay the tax due (the Roman tax which all citizens were required to pay) before his trial; Mamas refused to recognize the legitimacy of the pagan empire's claim. He was tortured and condemned to death — finally killed by being stabbed with a trident while imprisoned (the foundational element of his cult-iconography).
In the medieval Cypriot tradition Mamas became the universal popular patron saint of the island. The most-told Cypriot legend: when Mamas was being led to the Byzantine tax-court at Nicosia for his refusal to pay the imperial tax (a medieval legend, transposed to a later setting), a lion attacked his small donkey on the road. Mamas calmed the lion, tied his pack-load on its back, and rode the lion into the tax-court. The Byzantine governor was so amazed that he absolved Mamas from all taxes for life. His shrine at Morphou Bay in northwest Cyprus — preserving relics translated from Cappadocia during the Byzantine resettlement — has been the principal pilgrimage destination of Cypriot Catholicism and Orthodoxy for over a millennium.