Maximus of Rome

Holy Martyr Maximus of Rome is named among the twenty martyrs who suffered with the holy virgin Chrysia, in the third century. The Azbyka page commemorates them together with the Holy Hieromartyr Hippolytus, with Censorinus, with Sabinus and with Chrysia.

Censorinus was the first dignitary in the time of the emperor Claudius II (268-270). On an accusation, he was thrown into prison for his faith in Christ. There, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he raised a dead man, and twenty soldiers, guards of the prison, believed in Christ. They were beheaded together with Censorinus. Then the virgin Chrysia was brought for questioning; she confessed herself a Christian with courage and was put to torments, and after savage tortures she was drowned in the sea. Sabinus was struck with a heavy hammer, then hung from a tree and burned with fire; in his torments he gave his soul to the Lord.

With Saint Chrysia suffered: Philicles, Maximus, Herculinus, Venerius, Styracinus, Mina, Commodus, Hermes, Maurus, Eusebius, Rusticus, Monagrius, Amandinus, Olympius, Cyprian, Theodore, Tribunus, the presbyter Maximus, the deacon Archelaus and the bishop Cyrinus. Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, the harbour of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, learning of the martyrs' torments, came to the court, though aged, and rebuked the tormentor for his cruelty, calling him a drinker of blood. The judge, angered, gave him to torments; after long trials they bound him hand and foot and threw him into the sea.

They are commemorated on 12 February, in the new style. The name of Maximus is not in today's Menologion of the Russian Church.