Denis of Paris was a 3rd-century Christian martyr and saint. According to his hagiographies, he was bishop of Paris in the third century and, together with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, was martyred for his faith by decapitation. Some accounts placed this during Domitian's persecution and identified St Denis of Paris with the Areopagite who was converted by Paul the Apostle and who served as the first bishop of Athens. Assuming Denis's historicity, it is now considered more likely that he suffered under the persecution of the emperor Decius shortly after AD 250.
A martyr is a person who was killed because of their testimony of Jesus and God. In years of the early church, this often occurred through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment. The word "martyr" comes from the Koine word -> μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness" or "testimony".
Saint Pamphilus, was a presbyter of Caesarea and chief among the biblical scholars of his generation. He was the friend and teacher of Eusebius of Caesarea, who recorded details of his career in a three-book Vita that has been lost.
Saint Dionysius the Great was the 14th Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria from 28 December 248 until his death on 22 March 264. Most information known about him comes from his large surviving correspondence. Only one original letter survives to this day; the remaining letters are excerpted in the works of Eusebius.
The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. In 303, the Emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices. Later edicts targeted the clergy and demanded universal sacrifice, ordering all inhabitants to sacrifice to the gods. The persecution varied in intensity across the empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors at different times, but Constantine and Licinius' Edict of Milan (313) has traditionally marked the end of the persecution.
Saint Blandina was a Christian martyr who died in Lyon, France during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Saint Romanus of Caesarea is venerated as a martyr. In 303 or 304, at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, a deacon called Romanus of Caesarea in Palestine suffered martyrdom at Antioch. He was taken prisoner, was condemned to death by fire, and was bound to the stake; however, as Emperor Galerius was then in Antioch, Romanus was brought before him. At the emperor's command Romanus' tongue was cut out. Tortured in various ways in prison he was finally strangled.
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.
Elias and four companions, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Samuel were Egyptian martyrs. Their feast day is February 16.
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred throughout most of the Roman Empire's history, beginning in the 1st century AD. Originally a polytheist empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and Hellenistic religion, the Christianization of the Roman Empire brought early Christianity into ideological conflict with the imperial cult and the practice of making sacrifices to the deified emperors, which violates Christianity's prohibition on idolatry; Christians were punished for not conforming to officially-sanctioned religious norms. In the 4th century, the state church of the Roman Empire began persecutions of Christians considered to be apostates, heretics, or heterodox in doctrine.
Basilides and Potamiaena were Christian martyrs now venerated as saints. Both died in Alexandria during the persecutions under Septimus Severus.
Procopius of Scythopolis is venerated as a martyr and saint. He was a famous ascetic and erudite theologian and philosopher. Eusebius of Caesarea wrote of his martyrdom, which occurred during the persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian, and stated that "he was born at Jerusalem, but had gone to live in Scythopolis, where he held three ecclesiastical offices. He was reader and interpreter in the Syriac language, and cured those possessed of evil spirits." Eusebius wrote that Procopius was sent with his companions from Scythopolis to Caesarea Maritima, where he was decapitated.
Saint Aedesius of Alexandria was an early Christian martyred under Galerius Maximianus. He was the brother of Saint Aphian. According to the martyrology, he publicly rebuked a judge who had been forcing Christian virgins to work in brothels in order to break them of their faith, so he was tortured and drowned.
Agapius of Palestine was a Christian martyr from Gaza, beheaded along with seven others by order of Urban, governor of Palestine, in the year 303 or 304 under the Great Persecution of Diocletian. Eusebius records that Timolaus of Pontus, Dionysius from Tripolis in Phœnicia, Romulus, said to have been sub-deacon of the parish of Diospolis, Plæsius of Egypt, and two men named Alexander, one from Gaza and the other from Gazahad. These six young men bound themselves and surrendered to Urban in the hopes of becoming martyrs. They openly professed their Christianity and said that their faith made them unafraid of the wild animals of the arena. Urban had them put into prison. A few days later they were joined by two others, one a certain Dionysius, and the other Agapius, who is said to have been tortured in the past for his faith. All eight were beheaded in Caesarea Maritima on the same day.
Saints Trophimus (Trophimos), Sabbatius, and Dorymedon are venerated as Christian martyrs. The story of their martyrdom is enshrouded in myth, and though they share the same feast day, the saints were not martyred together or at the same time.
The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom is a 2013 book by Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. In her book, Moss advances a thesis that: -
- The traditional idea of the "Age of Martyrdom", when Christians suffered persecution from the Roman authorities and lived in fear of being thrown to the lions, is largely fictional.
- There was never sustained, targeted persecution of Christians by Imperial Roman authorities.
- Official persecution of Christians by order of the Roman Emperor lasted for at most twelve years of the first three hundred of the Church's history.
- Most of the stories of individual martyrs are pure invention,
- Even the oldest and most historically accurate stories of martyrs and their sufferings have been altered and re-written by later editors, so that it is impossible to know for sure what any of the martyrs actually thought, did or said.
Saint Theodosia of Tyre, according to the historian of the early Christian church Eusebius, was a seventeen-year-old girl who deliberately sought to be executed as a martyr to Christianity in the city of Caesarea in 307 AD. She was tortured, urged to reject Christianity, and, when she refused, thrown into the sea. She is commemorated on April 2.
Saints Alphaeus and Zaccheus were two Christians who were put to death in Caesarea, Palestine, in 303 or 304, according to church historian Eusebius in his Martyrs of Palestine. They are commemorated on Nov. 18.
On the Martyrs of Palestine is a work by church historian and Bishop of Caesarea, Eusebius, relating the persecution of Christians in Caesarea under Roman Emperor Diocletian. The work survives in two forms, a shorter recension which formed part of his Ecclesiastical History, and a longer version, discovered only in 1866. Eusebius was present in Caesarea at the time of the persecutions he recounts.
The Martyrdom of Pionius is an account dating from about 250AD to 300 AD of the martyrdom of a Christian from Smyrna named Pionius. It is also known as The Martyrdom of Pionius the Presbyter and His Companions, The Acts of Pionius, and in Latin as Martyrium Pionii or Passio Pionii. Pionius was a presbyter, and was most likely killed between 249 and 251 AD during the rule of the Roman Emperor Decius. The feast day of Saint Pionius is kept on March 11 in Eastern Orthodox churches, and on February 1 in Roman Catholicism.
