ON THE HOLY 6,628 MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA AND SS. AITHALUS AND JUNIUS AND PHILIP AND THEODOTUS: MARTYRS,
From various Greek Calendars.
Under Maximian.
CommentarySix thousand six hundred and twenty-eight Martyrs, at Nicomedia. (SS.)
Aithalus, martyr. (S.)
Junius, martyr. (S.)
Philip, martyr. (S.)
Theodotus, martyr. (S.)
BY J. P.
This most numerous band of Martyrs is announced by Greek Ms. documents, This vast band of 6,628 Martyrs is noted whose collection we keep. For the Supplement to the printed Menæa of the Greeks, from an ancient membrane Ms. Synaxarion of Father Sirmond, or of the Clermont college, which afterwards received the name of Louis the Great, of the Society of Jesus at Paris, reports them thus on this day: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμ. ἐπέδραμεν ἡ μνήμη τῶν ἑξάκις χιλίων ἑξακοσίων εἰκοσὶ ὀκτὼ ἁγίων Μαρτύρων μαρτυρισάντων ἐπὶ Μαξιμιανοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως. Which sound thus in Latin: On the same day occurs the memory of six thousand six hundred and twenty-eight Martyrs, who underwent martyrdom under the emperor Maximian; which is there subjoined in this manner:
[2] Οὗτοι γὰρ, μετὰ τὸ τελειωθῆναι τοὺς ἁγίους δὶς μυρίους, εὑρέθησαν κρυπτόμενοι ἐν ὄρεσι τραχυτάτοις·
Χριστιανοὺς δὲ ἑαυτοὺς ἀνακηρύξαντες ἐνώπιον τοῦ τυράννου, in the Sirmondian synaxarion, and is explained by our observations καὶ πέντε ἡγεμόνας παρ᾽ αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ τιμωρεῖσθαι ἐκδοθέντες, καὶ πολλὰ παθόντες, ἐκ τῆς προσκαίρου ταύτης ζωῆς πρὸς τὴν αἰώνιον μετεβιβάσθησαν. And these I subjoin thus in Latin: For these, after twice ten thousand Saints had been slain, were found hidden in the roughest mountains. And when before the tyrant they confessed themselves Christians, and that there were five prefects among them, being delivered to punishment and having suffered many things, from this temporal life they were translated to the eternal. If you ask who those twice ten thousand Saints are, of whom mention has been made, I believe they are the same who in the Menologium of Sirletus at the XXVIII of December are thus marked: The contest of the twenty thousand holy Martyrs burned under the emperor Maximian at Nicomedia. Hence I gather that today's six thousand six hundred and twenty-eight Martyrs belong to the same city or district of Nicomedia.
[3] The same is urged from the great printed Menæa of the Greeks, is explained by ours. where at the said day, the XXVIII of December, those twenty thousand champions are set down in this manner: Of the two myriads of Saints (in Greek δισμυρίων) burned at Nicomedia. And the narrative of the martyrdom thus begins: The emperor Maximian having returned in victory from the war against the Ethiopians, etc. The other thing which I would have observed concerns the 3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia, who on the III of September are in our transcript from the Greek Menæa of the Fathers Preachers at Florence. The same number of Martyrs stands at the IV day of September in the great printed Menæa, where they are said to have been found lurking in the mountains and caves of Nicomedia; whom Maximian, after subjecting them to countless punishments, delivered to death. If you compare these 3,628 Martyrs with today's 6,628, there are two things which agree, namely that they died under the emperor Maximian; that they were found lurking in mountains and caves. Add that the numbers are the same, except the first. Hence anyone might with reason suspect that the same Champions occur in both places, and that an error could have crept into the first arithmetical number, even though that first number is expressed in the great Menæa expressly as τρισχιλίων, that is, of three thousand, and not by a numeral letter which might signify the same number. There seems indeed to be an error somewhere; but where it is, I do not know. The martyrdom of the 6,628 Champions, which was said above to have happened after twice ten thousand Saints had been slain — namely, the emperor, as the great printed Menæa indicated, Maximian, having returned in victory from the war against the Ethiopians — the martyrdom, I say, of the 6,628 Champions may have happened in the year 297, in which Maximian Herculius is read to have triumphed over the Moors, in Tillemont, vol. 4 of the Emperors, in the treatise on Diocletian, article 15.
[4] These four Martyrs are unknown to us. In the said Sirmondian Synaxarion, after the 6,628 Martyrs, these four are subjoined: Τούτοις συνεορτάζεται καὶ μνήμη Μαρτύρων Ἀειθαλᾶ, καὶ Ἰουνίου, Φιλίππου, καὶ Θεοδότου. That is, With these is venerated also the memory of the martyrs Aithalas, and Junius, Philip, and Theodotus; whom I also read elsewhere in our collection of Greek Mss.; but the formation of all the names is not the same there, for instead of Junius is written Julia, and instead of Theodotus, Theodota. More concerning these Martyrs I have not hitherto known. Aithalas with Ammun we give on this day; but whether the former Aithalas, who is noted with three others, is different from that namesake, I cannot affirm as certain.