Maximus of Carthage

Holy Martyr Maximus of Carthage (the African) suffered in Africa under Decius (249-251), together with Terentius, Pompius (Publius), Africanus, Zeno, Alexander, Theodore and others. The governor Fortunatian gathered the people and ordered all to sacrifice to idols. Many took fright, but forty Christians, headed by Terentius, confessed their faith in the risen Christ. Terentius, Africanus, Maximus and Pompius were imprisoned, and the others tormented: burned with red-⁠hot iron, with vinegar poured into their wounds, with salt, scraped with iron claws, without weakening.

The temple

Taken to the temple, they asked God to destroy the temple of the idols, and the idols fell to pieces and the temple collapsed. Thirty-⁠six were beheaded. The four remaining Fortunatian put in heavy chains, to die of hunger. At night an angel took off their chains and fed them. The governor then sent sorcerers with snakes into the prison, but the guards saw the martyrs praying and the snakes crawling at their feet; when the doors were opened, the snakes rushed at the sorcerers. In anger Fortunatian ordered their heads cut off, and the Christians buried their bodies with honour outside the city.

The memory of Maximus is kept on 23 April and on 10 November, in the new style.