Martyrs of Niculițel

The Martyrs of Niculițel are Saints Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip, whose graves were discovered in 1971. Lesser Scythia (modern Romania), between the Danube and the Black Sea in the northeastern territory of the Roman Empire, was a place of exile or death for Christians who refused to worship the pagan gods. During the persecutions of Decius (249 to 251), Diocletian and Maximian (284 to 305) and Licinius (308 to 324), thousands of people died there from cold, hunger or torture. The relics of those who endured martyrdom because they openly proclaimed their faith in Christ were taken by Christians and buried in secret places. Accounts of their lives and sufferings were written and preserved so they would not be forgotten. When the persecutions ended, the relics were moved from their temporary resting places into special crypts (martyria), and churches were built over them, the ruins of some of which may be seen today in Dobrogea.

In September 1971 a creek overflowed its banks near the village of Niculițel in Tulcea county, revealing one of the oldest of these martyria. The crypt, made of bricks, is divided into two rooms, one above the other. In the upper room the relics of four martyrs were found in a single wooden coffin. All had been decapitated: the heads of three lay atop their necks, while the head of the fourth rested on his chest. An inscription on the left wall reads "Christ's martyrs," and the names of the four (Zoticus, Attalus, Camasius and Philip) were scratched into the right wall. According to the surviving records, they were tried by the Roman authorities of Noviodunum (modern Isaccea) and sentenced to death, beheaded and buried at Niculițel. The exact date of the martyrdom is not known: some believe they were killed early in the fourth century in the persecutions of Diocletian or Licinius, others that they were martyred north of the Danube in the persecution of the Gothic king Athanaric (370 to 372).

In the lower crypt about a hundred bone fragments of two men aged 45 to 50 were found; it is thought that they died in the persecution of Decius and were reburied at Niculițel around 370 to 380, and their names are not known. The Syrian Martyrology and Saint Jerome's Martyrology give 4 June as the date of the martyrs' execution. The synaxaria list the four together with six others, Eutychius, Quirinus, Julia, Saturninus, Ninita and Fortunio, and twenty-⁠five others beheaded with them but not named. The relics of the holy martyrs were moved in 1971 to the Cocos Monastery, where the faithful venerate them. The Martyrs of Niculițel are commemorated on 4 June (new style; 17 June on the old calendar).