The 20,000 Martyrs

The 20,000 Martyrs died by fire in the church of Nicomedia, on the night of the Nativity of the Lord in the year 302, when Emperor Maximian ordered all those gathered at the service burned.

Maximian's persecution

At the beginning of the fourth century Maximian (284-305) ordered the Christian churches destroyed, the service books burned, and all Christians stripped of their civil rights and offices. The bishop of Nicomedia then was Saint Cyril, whose preaching and life increased the Christian faith, so that many of the emperor's officials were secret Christians. In the palace lived a pagan priestess, Domna, who, in Maximian's absence, read the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Paul, and a desire to know the Christian teaching kindled in her heart. Helped by a young Christian girl, she came secretly to Bishop Cyril, accompanied by her faithful servant, the eunuch Indis; both were catechized and then baptized. Domna began to help the poor, distributing her jewels with the help of Indis, and food from the royal table. The chief of the eunuchs, in charge of the royal table, learning of their unusual way of life, shut them up and starved them, but they were strengthened by angels and came to no harm. So as no longer to live with pagans, Domna feigned madness; she was then put out of the palace and settled in a convent, with the abbess Agatha, who soon dressed her in men's clothing, cut her hair and let her go.

The search for Domna

The emperor returned and ordered the former priestess Domna sought everywhere. The soldiers sent reached the convent and laid it waste. The sisters were thrown into prisons, tormented and abused, but not one was defiled. Given over to a house of shame, the holy Theophila kept her virginity there through the help of an angel of the Lord, who led her out of the house of sin. Once the emperor held a sacrifice to the idols in the city square; when the sprinkling of the crowd with the blood of the sacrificed animals began, the Christians began to leave the square, and the emperor grew angry but did not give vent to his feelings, for the earth suddenly shook. After a time Maximian entered a church and ordered them to renounce Christ, promising to burn the church and kill them if they refused. The Christian priest Glycerius answered him that Christians would never renounce their faith, whatever torments threatened them. Holding back his anger, the tsar went out of the church, and after a little while ordered the priest Glycerius brought to trial. The executioners tormented him; he did not cease to pray and call on the Name of the Lord, and Maximian, unable to persuade him, ordered him burned.

The night of the Nativity

On the feast of the Nativity of Christ in 302, when about 20,000 Christians were gathered in the cathedral of Nicomedia, the emperor sent a herald to order them all to come out and sacrifice to the idols, or he would burn the church with those at prayer. All those present refused. While the executioners were preparing to set fire to the church, Bishop Anthimus, who was officiating (commemorated on 3 September), baptized all the catechumens and communed all with the Holy Mysteries. All 20,000 died in the fire, among them the abbess Agatha and the holy Theophila, who had escaped by miracle from the house of shame; Bishop Anthimus managed to hide. Maximian thought he had destroyed all the Christians of Nicomedia, but soon learned that there were still many, who confessed their faith and were ready to die for Christ. He resolved to strike at them: the commander Zeno, who had publicly rebuked the emperor for impiety and cruelty, was seized, cruelly beaten and beheaded, and the eunuch Indis, a servant of the idols, was imprisoned for refusing to take part in the pagan festival. Meanwhile Domna was hiding in a cave, feeding on plants, and the persecution went on: the governor of Italy Dorotheus, Mardonius, the deacon Mygdonius and several dignitaries were thrown into prison, whom Bishop Anthimus strengthened by letters. One of the letters was intercepted at the deacon Theophilus; to learn of the bishop he was tortured, but bore all the torments without revealing anything; then he was put to death together with those to whom the letter was addressed.

Domna by the sea

When Domna returned to the city she wept long on the site of the fire, grieving that she had not been found worthy to die with her sisters. Then she went to the seashore, where fishermen had drawn from the water in their nets the bodies of the martyrs Indis, Gorgonius and Peter. Still in men's clothing, she helped the fishermen haul the nets, and they left the bodies of the martyrs to her. She looked on the holy remains with reverence, rejoicing above all to see the body of her spiritual friend, the martyr Indis, and after the burial she did not leave the beloved graves, censing before them daily. When the emperor was told of an unknown youth who honoured the graves of executed Christians, he ordered his head cut off. With Domna the martyr Euthymius was executed.

The sources consulted give no date for the commemoration.