Martyrs Theopemptus and Companions

CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS THEOPEMPTUS AND COMPANIONS

Theopemptus, Martyr (Saint) Companion Martyrs

G. H.

The Menaia of the Greeks suggest several Theopemptoi, who, for want of Acts, can be distinguished only with difficulty. Of these we have given on January 3 St. Theopemptus the Bishop, slain by the sword under Diocletian, together with the magician Theonas, of whom mention will be made below in the Acts of the Martyrs of Nicomedia. We judge this to be a different Theopemptus, whom the Menaia hold to have obtained the palm of martyrdom with companions or associates, several Saints named Theopemptus, "and his company": without any mention of priestly or episcopal rank. The same Menaia on January 2 have the following: "Saints Theopemptus and Theodote, who was the mother of the holy Physicians who cured the sick without charge, rest in peace." We treated on that day of St. Theodote, mother of Saints Cosmas and Damian, omitting St. Theopemptus, lest he be the same as the Bishop venerated on January 3: I add, or on February 7; although this difference exists, that the former fell asleep in peace, while these were adorned by martyrdom.

CONCERNING THE ONE THOUSAND AND THREE HOLY MARTYRS FROM THE HOUSEHOLD AND RETINUE OF THE FOUR IMPERIAL PROTECTORS, AT NICOMEDIA.

AROUND THE YEAR 302

One thousand and three, servants of the four Imperial Protectors, Martyrs at Nicomedia (Saints)

G. H.

[1] The Emperor Gordian the Younger, as Cedrenus attests, was the first to institute the Candidati and Protectors, and the order of the Scholarians, which he named the Juniors after himself. The rank of Scholarians, The Scholarians, in Greek Scholarioi, were selected solely from men experienced and trained in military service, as a mark of reward, to be constantly present at court as guardians of the Emperor, and to accompany him when he went out in public for the sake of magnificence and display. Of the Candidati, From the Scholarians, according to the institution of the same Gordian, the Candidati were customarily chosen -- men flourishing in age and strength, and who would be terrifying to the enemy in appearance -- as is reported in the Alexandrian Chronicle. Between these two orders, the Protectors were reckoned as intermediate in rank, of the Imperial Protectors, called by the Greeks, using the Latin word, Protiktores: and they were, according to Menander in his work on Embassies, like "imperial bodyguards," that is, Attendants of the Emperor and his Bodyguards.

[2] That the dignity of these Protectors was not only continued under subsequent Emperors, The Greek Acts of these Martyrs hitherto unpublished, but also augmented with ample honors and riches, is confirmed by the Acts of these Martyrs, which we have obtained in Greek from the Medicean library of the Kings of France, hitherto unpublished: to which this title was prefixed: "The Contest of the one thousand and three Saints who completed their lives at Nicomedia," and indeed, as is said near the end, "on the thirteenth day of the month called Mechir by the Egyptians": which day corresponds to February 7. The number is customarily expressed in this manner, for which, by an error of copyists, "the twelfth day," were they written by an Egyptian author? which the Greeks indicate by a similar notation, had crept into the manuscript. From the Egyptian month that is expressed, it seems possible to infer that the Acts themselves were originally composed by some Egyptian author, and that some of the Martyrs, and perhaps the principal ones, in honor of whom the author expended that effort, were of Egyptian origin, or at least that their sacred relics had been translated thither.

[3] Their commemoration on February 7 in Galesini, Galesini commemorates these as follows: "At Nicomedia, of three thousand holy Martyrs. These servants, when they had seen their masters, who were leading men, converted to the faith under the Emperor Diocletian, constantly undergo martyrdom for Christ, and imitating their divine virtue, having joined to themselves their sons, wives, and all their kinsmen, they come before the presence of Diocletian, and with one mouth and free voice professed themselves to be Christians: having tried them in vain by every art to turn them from their resolve, he ordered them all to be slaughtered by the soldiers." Thus Galesini, who in the Annotations says that this is revealed in Greek documents. But in the manuscript Acts, those who were of the household of the four Protectors, together with their wives and children, were numbered at one thousand and three, in Greek, "having numbered themselves, one thousand and three."

[4] The Greeks have the following in the Menaia on this very day: and in the Menaia of the Greeks, "On the same day, the commemoration of the one thousand holy Martyrs and three servants and four Protectors who suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia," etc. On the same day, the commemoration of the one thousand holy Martyrs and three servants and four Protectors slain at Nicomedia. These servants served the four Protectors, under whom, by the edict of the Emperor, the most holy Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, was arrested and beheaded: after whose death, when the Protectors also, with their entire household, believed in Christ and were subjected to martyrdom, their servants, on account of their faith in Christ, all voluntarily hastened with their wives and children and infants to Diocletian, and professing themselves Christians, since they could not be induced to deny Christ, were all cut down by the swords of the army. Thus the Menaia, which are also found in the Lives of the Saints.

[5] Then Diocletian, driven to fury, signaled once more to the soldiers to cut them down: who, like wild beasts, rushing upon them from all sides, struck the holy Martyrs of Christ, sparing none, and the Martyrs fall, not even infants or those still nursing, nor did they leave a single one of them alive. And thus they consummated their glorious confession in Christ in the month called by the Egyptians Mechir, on the thirteenth day, by the Roman reckoning the seventh of February, at Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia, under the impious and most wicked Emperor Diocletian; but among us, with Christ Jesus, the true God and our Savior, reigning; to whom be praise and glory, with God the Father and the Holy and good and life-giving Spirit in all things, through all ages of ages. Amen.