The First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church
Martyrs
- Feast Day
- June 30
- Life
- d. 64
The Optional Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church commemorates the Christians of Rome killed under the Emperor Nero following the great fire that destroyed much of the city on the night of July 18-19, 64 AD. The Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44), writing about 116 AD, records that to deflect popular suspicion that he had himself ordered the fire, Nero blamed the Christians, those whom the populace called for their abominations, Christians, and inflicted upon them a multitude of cruelties.
According to Tacitus, the executions took place in Nero's circus on the Vatican Hill: some were sewn into animal skins and torn by dogs, others crucified, others burned alive after sunset to serve as torches for the imperial gardens. Tacitus, no friend of the Christians, calls the cruelty extreme and notes that the spectacle aroused not approval but pity even among pagans.
Saints Peter and Paul, whose Solemnity is celebrated on June 29, were almost certainly martyred during this same Neronian persecution; the present memorial therefore follows their feast and honors the unnamed companions in their martyrdom. The memorial was inserted into the General Roman Calendar by Pope Saint Paul VI in the 1969 reform.
The unnamed first martyrs of Rome are the prototype of all those whose names are written only in heaven (Luke 10:20), the multitudo ingens (vast multitude) whom the Church has always honored together with her named saints. The Catechism, citing Tertullian's dictum that the blood of Christians is seed (Apologeticum 50), teaches that martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith (CCC 2473).
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