6,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia and Ss. Aithalus and Junius and Philip and Theodotus

ON THE HOLY 6,628 MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA AND SS. AITHALUS AND JUNIUS AND PHILIP AND THEODOTUS: MARTYRS,

From various Greek Calendars.

Under Maximian.

Six 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.