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Lucius Caecilius FirmianussignoLactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most important work is the Institutiones Divinae, an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics.
Pope Stephen I was the bishop of Rome from 12 May 254 to his death on 2 August 257. He was later canonized as a saint and some accounts say he was martyred while celebrating mass.
Pope Marcellinus was the bishop of Rome from 30 June 296 to his death in 304. A historical accusation was levelled at him by some sources to the effect that he might have renounced Christianity during Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians before repenting afterwards, which would explain why he is omitted from lists of martyrs. The accusation is rejected, among others, by Augustine of Hippo. He is today venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The Great Apostasy is a concept within Christianity, identifiable at least from the time of the Reformation, to describe a perception that the early apostolic Church has fallen away from the original faith founded by Jesus and promulgated through his twelve Apostles. Protestants used the term to describe the perceived fallen state of traditional Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, because they claim it changed the doctrines of the early church and allowed traditional Greco-Roman culture into the church on its own perception of authority. Because it made these changes using claims of tradition and not from scripture, the church – in the opinion of those adhering to this concept – has fallen into apostasy. A major thread of this perception is the suggestion that, to attract and convert people to Christianity, the church in Rome incorporated pagan beliefs and practices within the Christian religion, mostly Graeco-Roman rituals, mysteries, and festivals. For example, Easter has been described as a pagan substitute for the Jewish Passover, although neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival.
Judah Maccabee was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
Arnobius was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin, during the reign of Diocletian (284–305). According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Veneria, a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a premonitory dream. Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book, so perhaps Jerome was projecting his own respect for the content of dreams. According to Jerome, to overcome the doubts of the local bishop as to the earnestness of his Christian belief he wrote an apologetic work in seven books that St. Jerome calls Adversus gentes but which is entitled Adversus nationes in the only (9th-century) manuscript that has survived. Jerome's reference, his remark that Lactantius was a pupil of Arnobius and the surviving treatise are all that we know about Arnobius.
The Korean Martyrs were the victims of religious persecution against Catholic Christians during the 19th century in Korea. Between 8,000 - 10,000 Korean Christians were killed during this period, 103 of whom were canonized en masse in May 1984, including the first Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon, executed by the sword in 1846.
Saint NinoEqual to the Apostles and the Enlightener of Georgia was a woman who preached Christianity in the territory of Caucasian Iberia, of what is now part of Georgia. It resulted in the Christianization of the royal house of Iberia, with the consequent Christianization of Iberia.
As the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, expanded, it came to include people from a variety of cultures, and religions. The worship of an ever increasing number of deities was tolerated and accepted. The government, and the Romans in general, tended to be tolerant towards most religions and religious practices. Some religions were banned for political reasons rather than dogmatic zeal, and other rites which involved human sacrifice were banned.
Fulgentius of Ruspe was bishop of the city of Ruspe, Roman province of Africa, North Africa, in modern-day Tunisia, during the 5th and 6th century. He was also canonized as a Christian saint.
El Kef, also known as Le Kef, is a city in northwestern Tunisia. It serves as the capital of the Kef Governorate.
The persecution in Lyon in AD 177 was a persecution of Christians in Lugdunum, Roman Gaul, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180). An account of this persecution is a letter preserved in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 1. Gregory of Tours describes the persecution in De Gloria martyrum.
Saints Cyprian and Justina are honored in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy as Christians of Antioch, who in 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution, suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia on September 26. According to Roman Catholic sources, no Bishop of Antioch bore the name of Cyprian.
Felicitas of Rome, also anglicized as Felicity, is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. Apart from her name, the only thing known for certain about this martyr is that she was buried in the Cemetery of Maximus, on the Via Salaria on a 23 November. However, a legend presents her as the mother of the seven martyrs whose feast is celebrated on 10 July. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates their martyrdom on 25 January.
Saint Julia of Corsica, also known as Saint Julia of Carthage, and more rarely Saint Julia of Nonza, was a virgin martyr who is venerated as a Christian saint. The date of her death is most probably on or after AD 439. She and Saint Devota are the patron saints of Corsica in the Catholic Church. Saint Julia was declared a patroness of Corsica by the Church on 5 August 1809; Saint Devota, on 14 March 1820. Both were martyred in pre-Christian Corsica under Roman rule. Julia's feast day is 23 May in the Western liturgical calendar and 16 July in the East.
Fabiola or, the Church of the Catacombs is a novel by the English Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman. It was first published in 1854. The novel has been adapted to film three times.
The persecution of Christians occurred, sporadically and usually locally, throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the 1st century AD and ending in the 4th century AD. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and the Hellenistic religion, as Christianity spread through the empire, it came into ideological conflict with the imperial cult of ancient Rome. Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy.
Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea, from where it spread throughout and beyond the Roman Empire.
Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face is an 1853 novel by the English writer Charles Kingsley. It is a fictionalised account of the life of the philosopher Hypatia, and tells the story of a young monk called Philammon who travels to Alexandria, where he becomes mixed up in the political and religious battles of the day. Intended as Christian apologia, it reflects typical 19th-century religious sentiments of the day. For many years the book was considered one of Kingsley's best novels and was widely read.
Pelagia, distinguished as Pelagia of Antioch and Pelagia the Virgin, was a Christian saint, virgin, and martyr who leapt to her death during the Diocletianic Persecution rather than be forced by Roman soldiers to offer a public sacrifice to the pagan gods, or to do "something unspeakable ", typically inferred as the Roman soldiers attempting to rape her. She was 15 years old. Originally, her feast day was celebrated on October 8, in common with SS Pelagia the Harlot and Pelagia of Tarsus. In the Roman Catholic Church, it came to be celebrated on June 9 and, at Naples in Italy, she is celebrated on October 5.
