CHAPTER VII: THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS FROM DECIUS (249-251) TO DIOCLETIAN (284-305) AND GALERIUS (292-311)

CHAPTER VII

THE GREAT PERSECUTIONS FROM DECIUS (249-251)

TO DIOCLETIAN (284-305) AND GALERIUS (292-311)

Introduction

            Taking exception of Maximinus Thrax’ persecution (235-238), the Church had enjoyed more than forty years of peace. During this period she gained notable ground and developed herself quite undisturbed in her internal organization.  She penetrated more than ever before the high hierarchies of the Roman State and of pagan society and conquered adherents from the nobility and public servants of the State.  This very long peace, however, was not an unmixed benefit for the Christians.  A spirit of worldliness was beginning to manifest itself not only among the laity, but even in the ranks of the clergy.  Then a storm of persecution swept over them, which exceeded in violence all that had gone before.

Decius’ Persecution (249-251)

            St. Cyprian (200-258) observes that God sent another persecution “to put his Family to the test.”[1]  Septimus Severus (193-211) and Maximinus Thrax (235-238) tried to stop the further spread of Christianity.  Decius was determined to annihilate it.  Severus forbade the preaching of the Gospel of Christ and the reception of Baptism.  Decius promulgated an edict of extermination against Christianity itself.

            Decius’ persecution was short but tremendously violent and devastating.  Decius (249-251) is one of those military emperors with little culture, but full of energy.  He was of Pannonian-Illyrian descent.  He was determined to restore the Empire to its primeval glory.  He wanted to give to the weakened Empire, weakened by the corruption of oriental customs, a greater strength against its external and internal enemies and bring it back to its former glory.  He believed, then, that it was necessary to submit Christianity to the ancient unitarian religion of the State because, in his mind, Christianity was the worst enemy of the Empire.

            He proceeded against the Christians with decision and systematically.  This persecution has a much greater importance than all the precedent ones and inaugurates a new period in the history of the persecutions.  Before Decius the Christians were persecuted by Roman authorities.  Some of the Emperors themselves intervened against the Christians.  There never was, however, a universal persecution directed towards annihilating Christianity.  Previous persecutions lasted for a short time and were directed to one segment of the Church, the bishops or the priests, or the catechumens.  They tried to check the spreading and diffusion of Christianity.  Although a condemned religion, and the Christians lived in perpetual fear of pagan fanatics, of the hatred of the masses, yet, there never was a universal step to obliterate them.  In the ups and downs of the persecution the Christians continued to grow both in number and in influence. Christianity, we could say, was never taken as a real threat to the security of the Roman Empire.  Now with this new and military minded Emperor, Decius (249-251), things take a drastic change for the worse.  The sky of the empire darkens and Christians throughout the length and width of the empire are faced with the dilemma of either confess their faith and die a martyr’s death, or apostatize.

            Let us then see the concrete development of the persecution.  An edict issued towards the end of 249 or the beginning of 250 commanded all persons to present themselves before the local authorities and clear themselves of the accusation by sacrificing to the gods.  If they failed to appear, the magistrates were to seize them and force them by every means in their power to abjure their faith, that is, they were obliged to offer a solemn sacrifice.  Those who remained firm were sent into exile or condemned to death and their property confiscated. The governors of the provinces were threatened with severe punishment if they condemned any one to death without having made every effort to obtain from him an act of abjuration.  The Christians formed at this time a large minority in the Empire and Decius saw quite well that to kill them all, even if that had been possible, would spell ruin for Rome.  Hence, the extreme measures adopted, especially against the bishops and priests, to break down their resistance (tyrannus infestus sacerdotibus).  Decius affirmed that he would rather have an opponent in the empire than a Christian bishop in Rome (ib, 1.c).

           

The Attitude of the Christians During Decius’ Persecution

            As this persecution came as a bolt from heaven, the Christians were filled with fear.  Alas, they proved, in many cases, too weak in the faith.  In the most important cities of the Empire, Rome, Alexandria, Carthage and Smyrna there were massive defections.[2]  Some bishops and priests also, apostatized.  We can distinguish four kinds of Christians in their relation to Decius’ persecution.

1. Thurificati (IncenseWorshippers), that is, those who had actually fulfilled the edict by offering incense
2. Sacrificati (Sacrifice Offerers), that is, those who had offered to the gods sacrifices of animals.  These two kinds of Christians are “apostates” or “Lapsi” as such, because they denied the faith and abjured Christ.
3. Libellatici (Certificate-takers), that is, those who evaded the consequence of their faith by procuring documents – Libelli –through bribery or otherwise, which certified that they satisfied the authorities of their submission to the edict.  Cyprian and some strict Christians put them in the same category as those who had apostatized and given up their faith.  We have some samples or certificates (libelli) attesting pagan sacrifices.  Most of them – almost forty – were written in Greek and come from Theadelphia, a village in Egypt.  Here is one example:

To those chosen to superintend the sacrifices, from Inaro Akis of the village of Theoxenis with her children Ajax and Hora, who dwell in the village of Theadelphia.

It has always been our custom to sacrifice to the gods, and now in your presence in accordance with the decrees we have offered sacrifice, much libation, and tested of the offerings, and hereby request that you countersign the statement. May you have good fortune.

We, Aurelius Serenus and Hermes, witnessed your sacrifice.  In the first year of the Emperor Cesar Gaius Messinus Quintus Trajan Decius Pius Felix Augustus, the twenty-third day of the month of Pauni (June 18, 250).

4. There was, however, “A Multitude”[3] of confessors and martyrs from every country, of every age and state of society.  One of the first was pope Fabian[4] (236-250; Feast, January 20) who according to Eusebius[5] “found fulfillment (his life) in martyrdom at Rome, where Cornelius succeeded him as bishop,” and bishop Alexander of Jerusalem, Babylas of Antioch and the bishop of Toulouse.  In Smyrna, the aged priest Pionius was seized while offering up the Holy Sacrifice on the anniversary day of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp (ca. 70-156).  All efforts on the part of the judge and the people to make Pionius deny his faith were in vain.  He was repeatedly tortured and then burned at the stake.

The most noted of all the victims of Decius’ persecution was Origen (185-254) whose father Leonides had already been a martyr during Septimus Severus’ (193-211) persecution. He was arrested and being so known, the judge tried every means to make him recant.  The persecutors were convinced that, if he apostatized, multitudes would follow his examples.  In spite of his sixty-seven years, he bore the torments unflinchingly.  After the death of Decius (251), he regained his freedom, but broken in body, he lingered on for two years more.  Thus he attained in his old age the crown of martyrdom which he had desired so ardently in his youth (+254).

Many others like Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258), Dionysius of Alexandria (ca. 185-265) and Gregory Thaumaturgus (ca. 213-272) of Neocaesarea saved their lives by flight.

The persecution subsided in the spring of 251 because Decius was engaged in fighting the Goths.  When in May or June of 251, he died fighting against them in the Lower Danube (Moesia) a complete peace came back for the Christians.  The “execrable animal,” as Lactantius would call him, was dead.  The Church had been badly shaken but not destroyed.  Many “Lapsi” returned to the Church.  Their admission back into the Church provoked, as we will see later on, serious controversies in Rome and Carthage.

The successor of Decius, Gallus (251-253), allowed the Christians total freedom at the beginning of his reign.  But her trails were not yet over.  Sometime later, however, a great pestilence broke out and spread rapidly over the whole Empire.  The Emperor ordered sacrifices of expiation to be offered to Apollo in order to obtain relief from the dreadful scourge.  In consequence Christian blood flowed once more.  The Christians this time were better prepared than before; even some apostates paid for their guilt with death.  When Pope Cornelius (251-253) was taken prisoner, hundreds of Roman Christians appeared before the tribunal of the Prefect and fearlessly declared that they were ready to die with their bishop.  Cornelius died in exile (Feast, September 16).  His successor Pope Lucius I (253) was banished.

Persecution of Valerianus (253-260)

            With Valerian’s accession to the throne, peace came back to the Church.  There are two phases in Valerian’s rule:

1. Friendship Towards the People of God.  Eusebius quotes a letter of Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, in which he says:

…He [Valerian] was so wonderfully friendly and gentle to the People of God.  Not one of the Emperors before him not even those who were supposed to have been avowed Christians was so kindly and sympathetic in his attitude to them as was Valerian.  At first, he received them publicly with all friendship and affection and filled his whole palace with God-fearing people, making it a Church of God.  But what a change when he was induced to get rid of them by the teacher and guile-leader of the magicians from Egypt (a certain Macrian) who urged him to kill or persecute pure and saintly rivals who hindered his own foul, disgusting incantations.[6]

2. Enmity Against the Church.  We can see from the above quotation, one of the reasons of his persecuting the Christians: Macrian’s insinuation.  He was head-accountant to the whole imperial exchequer and wrongly thought that the Christian Church was a powerful organization possessing great wealth.  So the persecution intended to destroy this organization and make the life of the Christian community impossible.  In 257, he issued an edict ordering all bishops, priests and deacons to sacrifice to the gods under pain of banishment, and forbidding all Christians under pain of death from assembling in public or in private, and from visiting the cemeteries.

He published a second edict in 258[7] and ordained that the ecclesiastics of higher rank, if persistent in their faith, were to be brought to death immediately and also that eminent laymen should be put to death, if they did not renounce their faith.  Women of rank were sent into exile, public civil servants of the empire sent as slaves to forced labor.

In some provinces, the persecution was quite cruel but especially in the East, where the usurper Macrian continued to persecute the Christians.  The persecution ended with Valerian’s capture by the Persians in 259.

The most famous martyrs of this period are Pope Sixtus II (257-258; Feast, August 7), who was surprised in the Catacomb of Callixtus while celebrating the Sacred Mysteries, and was beheaded on the spot with four of his deacons (Aug. 6, 258).  Saint Lawrence (Feast, August 10), another deacon, was reserved for greater sufferings before he joined his master four days later.  In Africa, in Utica (Massa Candida) we have a great number of Christians with their bishop Quadratus; and above all Cyprian (Feast, September 16), the great bishop of Carthage, of noble family.  Cyprian had escaped the persecution of Decius by going into hiding.  In AD 257, under the emperor Valerian, he was arrested and sent into exile in Numidia, as related in the Acts of St. Cyprian.  But in July 258 Valerian ruled in an edict that all members of the recalcitrant Christians hierarchy be put to death, and this time, Cyprian, refusing to escape, was arrested.  The details of his final condemnation are given in the Acts.  When brought before the Proconsul and asked what he was, he replied, “I am a Christian and a Bishop.”  When the sentence of death was pronounced, he said: “Thanks be to God.”  In Spain, bishop Frutuosus of Tarragona with his deacons Augurus and Eulogius were burned in the amphitheater (259).

3. Gallienus (260-268 AD), Valerian’s son, issued edicts ending the persecution of his father.  This is how Eusebius words it:

The Emperor Caesar Publius Licinius Gallienus Pius Felix Augustus to Dionysius, Pinnas, Demetrius, and the other Bishops.  The benefit of my bounty I have ordered to be proclaimed throughout the world.  All places of worship shall be restored to their owners; you Bishops, therefore, may avail yourselves of the provisions of that decree to protect you from any interference.  The complete liberty of action which you now possess has long been granted by me; accordingly Aurelius Quirinius, my chief Minister, will enforce the ordinance given by me.[8]

These measures of Gallienus actually amounted to an Edict of Toleration.  Thus about the year 260 there began an era of peace for Christians that lasted for over forty years and was disturbed only by a minor persecution under Aurelian (270-275).  Aurelian known as Restitutor Orbis, was a votary of the gods, especially Sol Invictus (of Palmyra).  The cult of the Sun, joined with the cult of the Emperor, became, for a long time, the State religion.  Yet, at first, Aurelian respected the edicts of Gallienus.  He settled a dispute among the Christians of Antioch (272) and restored to the rightful bishop, Domnus, the church building claimed by the heretical and deposed bishop, Paul of Samosata. Political considerations, however, influenced the decision since Paul was a partisan of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, whom Valerian had vanquished.  In 275 and edict of persecution was issued; but it had little effect since the emperor was murdered soon thereafter and his successor made no effort to carry it out.

During this long period the Church prospered.  Eusebius remarked:

It was possible to see of what favor the rulers of each church were thought worthy by all the procurators and governors.  And how could anyone describe those assemblies attended by thousands and the multitudes of the gatherings in every city and the glorious concourses in the houses of prayer because of which, not being satisfied any longer with the ancient buildings they built, from the foundations up, spacious churches throughout all the cities.  The Christians grew in number and influence.  Many apostates returned to communion, but a spirit of worldliness began to infiltrate again in Christian ranks.[9]

The Persecution of Diocletian and Galerius (303-311)

            A new epoch began in the history of Rome with the accession of Diocletian (284-305) to the imperial throne.  The last traces of the ancient Republican institutions were abolished, and the Empire became an oriental despotism.  Diocletian was a capable and energetic man, a great statesman.  On account of the disorganization of the Empire and the menacing attitudes of the Germans on the Rhine and the Persians in the East, he reorganized the whole Empire, dividing it into four prefectures, twelve dioceses and 96 provinces, with a numerous apparatus of public civil servants.  In 286, he associated Maximian Herculeus (286-305) with himself in the government, giving him the West part of the Empire.  When further dangers arose in the East and the West, he created two Caesars in 292: the one Galerius (292-311) his son in law, to act as his own subordinate in the East; the other Constantius Chlorus (292-306), to divide the government of the West with Maximian.  Each of the four rulers was placed at a separate capital – Nicomedia (Diocletian), Milan (Maximian), Treves (Constantius Chlorus) and Sirmium (Galerius).

            Diocletian, though extremely superstitious, was tolerant by nature and indulged no hatred towards the Christians.  Constantius Chlorus was averse to popular idolatry and friendly towards the Christians; while Maximian and Galerius, brutal by nature and, like all tyrants, suspicious of any one who was not ready before their will in all matters, hated the Christians and were eagerly awaiting an opportunity to exterminate them.

            The long peace that reigned before Diocletian and during his first years favored the spreading of the Christian faith.  For almost 60 years the Christians had lived in peace.  Many Christians occupied high posts in the army and in the imperial court, and the emperor’s wife Prisca and daughter Valeria were Christians or were closely associated with Christianity.  In a total population of about fifty million for the empire, there were perhaps seven to ten million Christians.

            It seemed but a matter of short time until the new religion would prevail over the old, especially in the East.  However, the party of the ancient religion, instigated by adherents to Neoplatonism, persuaded the Caesar Galerius, a brave but brutal soldier, and through him to doubtful Diocletian, that the new policy of centralization and imperial restoration demanded the suppression and extermination of the enemies of the cult of the state.

            Eusebius says this:

Records has it that this person [Galerius] was chiefly responsible for the misfortune of the persecution, for long before the movement of the other emperors he had forced the Christians in the armed forces and first of all those in his household to turn away [from the faith], and demoted some from military rank, and insulted others most shamefully, and presently threatened others even with death and lastly stirred up his associates in the empire to the general persecution.[10]

           

According to Lactantius (254-338) the instigator  (auctor et consiliarus) of the persecution was the proconsul Hierocles of Bithynia, a Neoplatonist philosopher who fought the Christians even with his writings.

            We come, thus, to the last great persecution, the most cruel and the longest of them all, the true, decisive and final battle between Christianity and paganism.  A prelude to it had been the deportation of Christians from the army.  The soldiers had the only alternative of either sacrificing to the gods or being expelled with ignominy from the army and, in some instances, some of them were martyred.[11]

            The storm broke in all its fury in 303.  In the course of a year there were four edicts which constituted an authentic system of dispositions intending, if this were possible, to annihilate the Christians and blot out Christianity from the face of the earth.

Edicts Against the God-Fearing People

            We must rely on Eusebius for the descriptions of the persecution.  According to him there were four edicts:

1)    THE FIRST EDICT, or imperial decree was published everywhere, ordering the churches to be razed to the ground and the scriptures destroyed by fire, and giving notice that those places, and domestic staff, if they continued to profess Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty.  Such was the first edict against us.”[12]  So the first edict spared the lives of the Christians; yet it caused many to be put to death, particularly those who refused to give up their Sacred Books to the magistrates.  Many Christians, on the other hand, especially in Africa, voluntarily surrendered the books in their possession, but they were regarded by their more uncompromising brethren as guilty or sacrilege.  They are known in history as traditores (traitors).

According to Eusebius other decrees arrived in rapid succession.  After the first edict a fire broke out in the palace of Nicomedia, and the enemies of the Christians persuaded Diocletian that Christian hands had kindled it.  Bishop Anthimus and many Christians perished in Nicomedia.

2)    THE SECOND EDICT ordered “that the presidents of the churches in every place should all be first committed to prison and coerced by every possible means into offering sacrifice.”[13]  As such, then, there is no capital punishment, although many Christians were tortured and punished as arsonists.  The edict, then, commanded that all bishops, priests and deacons were to be cast into prison.  When this second edict against the Churches was issued at Nicomedia and posted up in a conspicuous public place says Eusebius:

--A WELL KNOWN PERSON, - Euethius, put to death the same day – by worldly standard of pre-eminence a man of the greatest distinction, was so stirred by religious enthusiasm and carried away by burning faith that he promptly seized it and tore it to shreds, as something unholy and utterly profane – and that, when two emperors were there in the same city, the most senior of them all – Diocletian – and the one who held the fourth place in the government – Galerius.”[14]

Another motive of this second edict was some insurrections in Cappadocia and Syria and the blame for this was also charged to the Christians.

3)    THE THIRD EDICT said that “those who were in prison should be compelled by torture to sacrifice, they were to be punished with severe torments.”[15] Because of this edict, there were innumerable martyrs in all the provinces.  The prefecture Gaul which comprised France, Spain, England subject to Constantius Chlorus, escaped the general persecution.  But in the rest, many were put to death.  Constantius Chlorus allowed the Churches to be destroyed but did not condemn Christians to death.  He restricted himself to the enforcement of the first edict only.

4)    THE FOURTH EDICT was issued in Rome in 304, as we know from Eusebius in his book about the Palestinian martyrs.  This is how it runs: “everybody, in all places must publicly sacrifice to the gods and offer libation.”[16]  This fourth edict directed the magistrates to force all Christians to offer sacrifice, and as these orders were strictly carried out, the Church was reduced to the highest heights of heroism.  The prisons were soon filled to overflowing; there was no room left for fresh chain gangs in the mines; the populace, sickened by the daily butchering, no longer crowd the places of execution.  Constantine, the Great (306-337) later declared before the fathers assembled at Nicaea that, if the Romans had slain as many barbarians there would be no barbarians left to threaten the safety of the Empire.  In one district of Egypt, an eyewitness tells us, from ten to thirty and sixty victims were put to death daily for more than a year.  A Christian town in Phrygia was burned to the ground with all its inhabitants, because they refused to sacrifice to idols.

There were many martyrs whose names have not come down to us.  We know of some of them, famous throughout the world.  Sebastian (Feast, January 20), Agnes (Feast, January 21), Marcus and Marcellianus, Petrus (Feast, June 2), Cosmas and Damian(Feast, September 26), Lucy (Feast, December 12), Vincent (Feast, January 22), etc.[17]

On the first of May 305, Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (286-305) abdicated.  The sovereignty now devolved on Galerius (292-311) in the East, and in the West on Constantius Chlorus (292-306), who in the following year was succeeded by his son Constantine.  As Caesars, we have in the West Severus (305-307) and Maximinus Daia (305-313), Galerius’ nephew for the East.

The persecution continued but the Christians in Italy and Africa had quieter and more peaceful days owing to the usurper Maxentius (305-312), son of Maximian Herculeus, a brutal and debauched tyrant who had defeated and killed the Caesar Severus, thus making himself master of Italy and Africa.

In the prefecture of Gaul (Spain, France and England) Constantine (306-337), who after his father’s death was proclaimed augustus, followed his father’s favorable rule for the Christians.  Licinius (308-323), proclaimed augustus for Pannonia and Noricum (308), was less hostile to the Christians than his comrade in arms Galerius (292-311).

In the East, however, the persecution raged for many years, and there was plenty of Christian blood.  Galerius could now persecute the Christians and satiate his hate against them, while his Caesar, Maximinus Daia, an augustus since 308 was even more refined than him in his cruelty.  There are many Christian martyrs; among them the learned Pamphilus of Caesarea, and Lucian of Antioch.  The bishops Peter of Alexandria, Methodius of Olympus, Sylvanus of Gaza, the latter with thirty companions.

Lactantius furnished a vivid description of emperor Galerius’ sadism in his persecutions against the Christians and any other kind of enemies.  Lactantius depicts the time just before the Edict of Tolerance in 311 by Galerius, Constantine and Licinius.  We read:

Arrived at the pinnacle of power, he had but one thought, to lord it over the world that he had subjected to himself…first of all, he deprived his victims of their honors; he tortured not only municipal magistrates but also the highest persons within the cities, persons of upper class and equestrian rank, and even in very trivial civil matters.  If they were judged worthy of death, the cross was prepared; for lesser crimes, there were fetters.  Mothers of families who were Roman citizens and even the well-born were dragged off to factories.  When men were to be flogged, he would have four posts fixed to the ground for them – even slaves had not been scourged this way before.”

What shall I say of his own amphitheater and his sport?  He used to keep bears (they resembled him in both size and viciousness) that he selected all through the course of his reign.  Whenever he felt like being amused, he had one brought in my name.  Then he would feed them a couple of men, to be devoured slowly.  The emperor would roar with delight on seeing their bodies being torn apart.  He never dined without a bit of human blood.

The punishment of fire was only for those who had no standing.  It was for the Christians that the emperor had first of all perfected this method of punishment, and he decreed that after being tortured they were to be burned by a slow fire.  After they were tied to a stake, a light flame was applied to the soles of their feet until the flesh, contracting under the heat of the flame, separated from the bones.  Then torches, lit briefly and then extinguished, were applied to all parts of their bodies, so that no part was left intact.  All the while they sprinkled the faces of the victims with cold water and moistened their mouths so that they wouldn’t die too quickly with their throats parched with dryness…[18]

During the entire ten-year period from 303-313, says Eusebius, there was no cessation in their plotting and warring against the Christians.  Eusebius refers mainly to the East, where the persecution came to an end only with the death of the last persecutor Maximinus Daia in 313.  In the West, and this also according to him:

Constantius Chlorus remained out of the war against us, and kept his subjects from harm and harsh treatment, and he did not tear down church buildings, nor did he devise any other new device against us at all: a truly happy and thrice-blessed end of life did he have, for he alone while still emperor died graciously and gloriously with a lawful son as his successor, most prudent and pious in every respect.  He immediately, when he took office, was declared most perfect emperor and augustus by the armies, and he established himself as an imitator of his father’s piety toward the doctrine.[19]

FAMOUS CHRISTIAN MARTYRS AND VICTIMS OF THE PERSECUTIONS

1. Jewish Persecutions
1. First Jewish Persecution

ST. STEPHEN, deacon (+ ca. 33/35 AD) – Christian Protomartyr

2. Persecution Under Herod Agrippa (died 44 AD)

ST. JAMES THE GREAT, brother of John, the beloved Apostle (martyred ca. 42/43 AD) – the Protomartyr of the Apostles

3. Second Jewish Persecution

ST. JAMES THE LESS, Bishop of Jerusalem (martyred ca. 62/63 AD)

2. Roman Persecutions[20]
1. NERO (reigned 54-68 AD)[21]

STS. PETER AND PAUL, apostles (martyred ca. 64/67 AD)

2. DOMITIAN (reigned 81-95 AD)

ST. JOHN, apostle and evangelist (confessor)

ST. TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENT, ex-consul, senator (martyred ca. 94/95 AD)

ST. FLAVIA DOMITILLA, wife of Titus Flavius Clement (martyred in exile ca. 94/95 AD)

ST. ACILIUS GLABRIO, consul (martyred ca. 94/95 AD)

3. TRAJAN (reigned 98-117)

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (35-107/110) sentenced to death ca. 107/110 AD. Died in Rome.

ST. SIMEON, relative of Our Lord, Bishop of Jerusalem.

4. Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161 AD)

ST. POLYCARP of Smyrna (70-156 AD), martyr, bishop and disciple of St. John the Apostle.[22]

5. MARCUS AURELIUS (reigned 161-180 AD)

ST. JUSTIN (100-168 AD), apologist, philosopher and Companion Martyrs

THE MARTYRS OF LYONS and VIENNE (martyred ca. 177 AD):

      ST. POTHINUS, bishop of Lyons and disciple of St. Polycarp

ST. SANCTUS, deacon

ST. BLANDINA, slave

ST. PONTICUS (only a boy when martyred)

                   ST. CECILIA, virgin and martyr (martyred ca. 180 AD in Rome).

6. Commodus (reigned 180-192 AD)

ST. APOLLONIUS, senator, in Rome.

The Martyrs of Scilium in the Roman Province of Africa[23]

N.B. through the intercession of Marcia, the morganatic wife of Commodus who was a Christian by belief but not in lifestyle, together with his Christian forster-father - the presbyter Hyacinth, arranged for the recall from exile from the silver mines of the future pope Callistus (pontificate 210-222 AD) and many more Christians.

7. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (reigned 193-211 AD)

ST. LEONIDAS of Alexandria, father of Origen (ca. 202 AD)

STS. PERPETUA (noble) and FELICITAS (slave) and Companion Martyrs (ca. 202) in Africa.

8. MAXIMINUS THRAX (reigned 235-238 AD)

ST. PONTIAN, pope and martyr (pontificate 220-235 AD)

ST. HIPPOLYTUS[24]

9. DECIUS (reigned 249-251)

ST. FABIAN, pope and martyr (pontificate 236-250 AD)

ST. ALEXANDER of Jerusalem

ST. BABYLAS of Antioch

ST. PIONIUS of Smyrna, priest and martyr

ORIGEN the Confessor (185-254)[25]

10. Gallus (reigned 251-253 AD)

ST. CORNELIUS, pope and martyr (pontificate 251-253 AD)[26]

ST. LUCIUS, pope and martyr (pontificate 253 AD)

11. Valerianus (reigned 253-260 AD)

ST. SIXTUS II, pope and martyr (pontificate 257-258 AD), in Rome, and his Six Deacons, martyred in August 6.

ST. LAWRENCE, deacon and martyr (martyred August 10, 258 AD), in Rome.

ST. QUADRATUS of Utica[27] (Massa Candida)

ST. CYPRIAN, bishop of Carthage (martyred September 258 AD)

ST. FRUCTUOSUS of Tarragona in Spain, bishop and martyr with his deacons Sts. AUGUSTUS and EULOGIUS.

12. DIOCLETIAN (reigned 234-305 AD)[28]

ST. SEBASTIAN (January 20)

ST. AGNES (January 21)

ST. MARCUS (January 22)

STS. MARCELLINUS and PETRUS (June 2)

STS. COSMAS and DAMIAN (September 26, Healing of the Sick)

ST. LUCY (December 17)

ST. VINCENT

13. Galerius (reigned 292-311 AD) and Maximinus Daia (305-313 AD)

ST. PAMPHILUS of Caesarea, disciple of Origen

ST. LUCIAN of Antioch, founder of the school of Antioch

ST. PETER of Alexandria

ST. METHODIUS of Olympus

ST. SYLVANUS of Gaza and Companion Martyrs

---

[1] De Lapsis, 5.

[2] Eusebius, H.E. VI, 39-41; Cyp. De Lapsis, 7-9.

[3] Cyp. De Lapsis, 27.

[4] His seat remained vacant more than a year.

[5] Eus., H.E. VI, 39.

[6] Eus. H.E., VII, 10.

[7] Cyp. Ep., 80.1

[8] Eus., H.E. VII, 13.

[9] Eus. H. E., VIII, 1.

[10] Eus. Hist. Eccl., VIII, Appendix.

[11] Marcellus, Desius, Thebean Legion, etc.; cf. Eus. H.E., VIII.

[12] Eus. H.E., VIII, 2.2.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid., 5.

[15] Ibid., 6.

[16] Eus. 1c., 3,1.

[17] The ACTA MARTYRUM give us many legendary passions of the martyrs whose existence is not clearly known, passions woven by the pious imagination of their admirers, so that it is by no means easy to extract the kernel of historical truth from those ACTS as they have come down to us. One of those legendary passions is that of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, from England who met their death at the hands not of the Romans but of the Hunns when returning from a pilgrimage from Rome about the year 452.   Although this is legendary, it has certain historical basis because in the Church of St. Ursula in Colonne, where she died, an inscription from the fourth or fifth century has been testifying to their martyrdom.  The number of eleven thousand virgins can be explained by the wrong reading of the Latin cipher XI, which may mean eleven or eleven thousand.

[18] Herbert Masurillo, SJ., The Fathers of the Primitive Church, A Mentor-Omega Book, pp. 241-242.

[19] Eus. Ecc. Hist. VIII, Appendix.

[20] Roman Emperors written in all capital letters are considered to be major persecutors.

[21] Some of the Roman Emperors during the period of the persecution were not written here owing to the fact that they did not persecute the Christians or that no Christian was martyred during their reign.

[22] He is the first Christian martyr whom the early Christians built an altar in his honor.  His are too, the first extant recorded acts of Christian martyrdom.

[23] They are the first martyrs of Africa and the Acts of their martyrdom were the first ones written in Latin.

[24] He is the first anti-pope but he repented later on of his rebellion and was reconciled already with Pope Pontian, if not already with Pope Urban (222-230).

[25] A noted thinker and theologian, mystic of the age, Origen suffered tremendously during the persecution of Decius. However, he survived the intense but short persecution.

[26] He died in exile in the mines.

[27] In the Roman province of Africa.

[28] Diocletian’s persecution is the last great presecution, the most cruel and longest of them all.  To understand the flow of the persecution we must keep sight of the role played by the different emperors governing the empire simultaneously in different dioceses of the vast Roman Empire.