The Martyrs Slain by the Bulgars in 811

The Martyrs Slain by the Bulgars in 811 are Christian Byzantine soldiers killed in Thrace, after the defeat of Emperor Nikephoros I's army by Khan Krum, because they refused to give up their faith. They are commemorated on 23 July as locally honoured martyrs; no date of canonization is known.

In 811 Emperor Nikephoros I set out from Constantinople with all his army, with his son Staurakios and his son-⁠in-⁠law Michael, against the Bulgars. The fighting was hard and Nikephoros at first won. Instead of settling his army after the victory, he gave himself to feasting and drink. The Bulgars regrouped and struck the Byzantine camp by night, scattering it. The emperor himself was killed by the Bulgar chief Krum.

The soldiers who were captured were pressed by the Bulgars to deny Christ. Because they refused to change their faith, some were killed by beheading, others by hanging. Their names are not known; the Church remembers them together as martyrs of the faith.