Maximus of Asia Minor

Saint Maximus of Asia Minor was a merchant and martyr and died in 250, in the time of the emperor Decius. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, with a commemoration on 30 April. Our sources show no Orthodox veneration.

The emperor Decius published a decree ordering the veneration of the busts of the deified emperors. Failure to pay homage to these idols was considered high treason, prosecuted by torture and death. The merchant Maximus, originally from Asia (according to one source a rich merchant of Asia Minor, who was then in Rome), was called before the consul Optimus. Maximus gave his name, his profession and the fact that he was a Christian. One source says that Optimus ordered him to sacrifice to the goddess Diana.

When Optimus said to him: “Sacrifice to save your life; if not, I shall make you die in torment,” Maximus answered: “I have always wished it; it is in order to pass out of this short and miserable life to the life eternal that I have declared my faith.” He was tortured on the rack and beaten with rods, but because he would not recant, Optimus ordered him stoned. On 4 May 250 he was led outside the city walls and stoned to death.

The evidence for his story comes from an act that is part of the proconsular acts, a text created by the clerk of the tribunal. The sources do not agree about the day of commemoration: one gives 30 April, while the day of death given in the same source is 4 May.