20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
| Nicomedia massacre | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait honoring the martyr victims of the massacre | |
| Location | Nicomedia, Bithynia, Eastern Roman Empire (modern-day İzmit, Turkey) |
| Date | 25 December 304 AD |
| Target | Christians |
| Weapon | Torture, mutilation, drowning, burning, skinning |
| Deaths | around several thousand to 20000 victims |
| Perpetrators | Roman soldiers under Emperor Maximian |
| Motive | Refusal to worship and obey Roman gods and renounce Jesus and their Christian faith |
20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia | |
|---|---|
Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II honoring the Martyrs of Nicomedia | |
| Martyrs | |
| Died | c. 4th century Nicomedia, Bithynia (modern-day İzmit, Turkey) |
| Venerated in | |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | 28 December (Eastern) 23 June (Western) |
| Attributes | Crown of martyrdom Martyr's palm |
| Patronage | Persecuted Christians |
The Nicomedia massacre was the brutal persecution, killings, mutilation, and torture of the Christian population of Nicomedia on Christmas Day, 304 AD. Around several thousand to 20,000 people were massacred by Roman soldiers under Emperor Maximian, most of whom were brutally tortured (or even burned alive in a church, according to some sources). This was not the first time that large numbers of Christians were massacred in Nicomedia or other parts of the Roman Empire.
In 304 AD, Emperor Maximian and his soldiers won a battle against Ethiopia. After the victory, Maximian travelled to the Eastern Roman city of Nicomedia and ordered the local Christian community there to give sacrifices to the Roman gods and thank them for his victory. When they refused, the Christians were gathered in a field and told they would be brutally tortured, murdered, and possibly even burned alive in a local church if they refused to make offerings to the Roman gods and renounce Jesus.
Upon further refusal to worship the pagan gods, around several thousand to 20,000 Christians were horribly tortured, mutilated, and dismembered, including having their limbs and heads amputated, their organs and skin removed, their bodies cut in half, being beaten to death with axes and hammers, impaled or stabbed repeatedly, drowned in a river, and burned alive with torches, among many other forms of torture and mutilation. Even the children of Christian parents were not spared from the mass torture and killings by the Romans.
When the mass torture and killings began, the Christians began praying aloud to God, and supposedly, many of them were burned alive in a local church or barn.
Many Christians, including a local bishop named Anthimus, tried to escape and flee from the massacre, especially those who had young children. Most of them were later hunted down and captured by the Roman soldiers, at whose hands they suffered the same fate as the other Christian martyrs. It is said that the Christian community and presence in Nicomedia was extinguished by the Roman soldiers.
There were a few Christians (many of whom are not known by name) who survived the massacre in Nicomedia and successfully avoided Roman soldiers and hid, including Saint Vasilissa the Martyr, who was just four years old at the time of the massacre. She went to live with a priest after her parents were presumably killed in the massacre. Despite surviving the Nicomedia massacre, Saint Basilissa was tortured and murdered by the Romans for her Christian faith, five years later in 309 AD, when she was just nine years old.
Christians in Nicomedia and in other parts of the Roman Empire were killed in massacres by the pagan Romans, before and after the massacre in 304 AD, during the persecution and massacres of Christians in the Roman Empire.
The several thousand to 20,000 victims of the Nicomedia massacre are venerated and beatified as martyrs and commemorated in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Bryzantine Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church, and in the Anglican Church.
In the Catholic Church, "20,000" for the number of martyrs is considered to be apocryphal.[1] However, the martyrs of Nicomedia continue to be honored with feast days:[1] they are commemorated on 28 December in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and by the Byzantine Catholic Churches.[2] In the Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church, there are separate entries for groups of martyrs of Nicomedia. The martyrdom of Anthimus of Nicomedia and companions is commemorated on 24 April and "the commemoration of many holy martyrs of Nicomedia" on June 23.
See also
[edit]
- Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
- Ten thousand martyrs
- Massacre
- Massacres and persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
References
[edit]- ^ a b Michael J. Walsh (30 July 2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. Liturgical Press. p. 401. ISBN 978-0-8146-3186-7. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
- ^ "The 20,000 Holy Martyrs of Nicomedia". St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
Encyclopedia of Saints, Second Edition (2014). Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor; 2nd ed. edition (July 2, 2014), ISBN 1612787169
