ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA: FIVE HUNDRED MEN AND ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY WOMEN.
Under Maximian.
Commentary
Five Hundred Men, Martyrs at Nicomedia (Sts.) One Hundred and Thirty Women, Martyrs at Nicomedia (Sts.)
By I. B.
[1] From the Acts of St. Juliana, Virgin and Martyr, it is established that many persons, moved by the miracle of her constancy, embraced the faith of Christ and, nobly professing it, were granted the laurel of martyrdom. The Greeks recall their memory on the twenty-first of December, on which day they believe Juliana herself consummated her contest, as do also certain Latin authors along with Baronius. We, having shown above from the most ancient Latin Acts that it seems more probable that she completed her martyrdom on this day, shall also place them on this day.
[2] Concerning their number, writers do not transmit the same figure. The more ancient Latin Acts read thus at number 16: "One hundred and thirty men were beheaded together with women." The later Acts written by Petrus read: "one hundred and twenty." It seems that in both Acts the number of the men has dropped out, and it should read: "Five hundred men were beheaded, together with one hundred and thirty women." And so indeed reads one of our manuscripts and the Legenda printed at Louvain in the year 1485. Vincent of Beauvais in book 12, chapter 36, says only: "And five hundred persons were divided, crying out with one voice..." "The Prefect reported these things to the Emperor, who ordered all of them, captured, to be punished by the sword." So also St. Antoninus, part 1, title 8, chapter 1, section 8: "And five hundred persons were converted at this spectacle," etc. Both, while briefly summarizing the matter, seem to have omitted the one hundred and thirty women. Our Petrus Canisius in the Martyrology expressly recorded five hundred men and one hundred and thirty women.
[3] Metaphrastes writes thus: "The entire people of the Nicomedians were therefore most greatly astonished by the miracle, and about five hundred men cried out with one voice and one mind... And the sword received them immediately, since the Prefect had so commanded, with no one left who had not been perfected in Christ. One hundred and thirty women were also companions of the same end; for they were not seen to be inferior to the men in what pertains to piety." The Greeks also in the Menaea form two companies: one of five hundred men, the other of one hundred and thirty women. So also Maximus Cytheraeus: "On the same day, the holy five hundred Martyrs of Nicomedia are perfected by the sword." And then: "On the same day, the holy one hundred and thirty women of Nicomedia are perfected by the sword." Their conversion and martyrdom are recorded in the earlier Acts at chapter 3, number 16, and more fully in the later ones at chapter 3, number 20.