Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Henryk Siemiradzki, Les Torches de Néron
(Lumières guidant la Chrétienté), huile sur toile, 385 x 704, 1876, National Museum Kraków
Henryk Siemiradzki, Nero's
Torches, 1876, 385 x 704, National Museum in Kraków
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Henryk Siemiradzki, Les Torches de Néron
(Lumières guidant la Chrétienté), huile sur toile, 385 x 704, 1876, National Museum Kraków
Henryk Siemiradzki, Nero's
Torches, 1876, 385 x 704, National Museum in Kraków
Saints Premiers martyrs
de Rome
(+64)
Injustement accusés par Néron de la responsabilité de l'incendie de Rome, cité qui, selon l'Apocalypse, "se saoulait du sang des témoins de Jésus." Ils furent livrés aux bêtes, éclairèrent les fêtes de Néron en brûlant comme des torches dans les jardins de Rome où ils furent torturés pour le plaisir sadique de leurs bourreaux.
Mémoire des premiers saints martyrs de la sainte Église romaine. En 64, après
l'incendie de la ville de Rome, l'empereur Néron accusa faussement les
chrétiens de ce forfait et en fit cruellement périr un grand nombre: les uns,
revêtus de peaux de bêtes, furent exposés aux morsures des chiens; d'autres
crucifiés; d'autres transformés en torches, afin qu'à la chute du jour ils
servissent d'éclairage nocturne dans le cirque. Tous étaient disciples des
Apôtres; ils furent les premiers des martyrs que l'Église romaine offrit au
Seigneur.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1413/Saints-Premiers-martyrs-de-Rome.html
Les premiers martyrs de l'Eglise
de Rome
Publié le 29 juin
2010 par jardinier de Dieu
30 juin
En l’an 64, date à
laquelle furent martyrisés les chrétiens de Rome, l’empereur régnant était trop
célèbre Néron. Celui-ci avait eu pour maître le philosophe Sénèque. Après avoir
suivi ses conseils et gouverné avec douceur et sagesse, il deviendra celui que
l’histoire jugera comme fou sanguinaire ...
Ce que nous savons de sa
responsabilité dans l’affaire des premiers martyrs de Rome, nous vient
essentiellement de l’historien païen Tacite. Tout peut mener aux pires excès,
même des goûts d’artiste. Néron trouvait certains quartiers de Rome mal bâtis
et laids, et il en souffrait. Lorsque, en 64, un terrible incendie les
détruisit en partie, la rumeur courut, non sans fondement, bien qu’il soit
difficile d’apporter des preuves, qu’il en était responsable. Il prit peur et
fit diversion en accusant les membres d’une secte nouvelle que l’on considérait
comme des ennemis du genre humain, et que l’on appelait les chrétiens.
Tacite, qui partageait
l’opinion de ses contemporains païens au sujet des disciples du Christ, mais
qui n’approuva pas la cruauté de Néron, nous dit qu’ils furent très nombreux à
être suppliciés. Certains cousus dans des peaux de bêtes, furent livrés aux
chiens. D’autres périrent crucifiés, d’autres encore, enduits de poix,
servirent de torches pour éclairer les jardins impériaux sur la colline du
Vatican. Parmi ces martyrs, il y avait des femmes. Des auteurs anciens pensent
que Pierre périt en ces jours-là.
La lettre de St Paul aux
Romains a été rédigée vers l’an 57. Beaucoup, parmi les martyrs de Néron,
l’avaient donc lue et méditée. Comment n’auraient-ils pas puisé dans ce passage
magnifique choisi pour célébrer leur triomphe, le courage de confesser leur foi
jusqu’au bout ? On se plaît à reprendre ici ce texte qui peut nous encourager,
nous aussi, à persévérer dans les épreuves de cette vie, même si nous ne sommes
pas appelés au martyr du sang : Qui pourra nous séparer de l’amour du Christ ?
La détresse ? L’angoisse ? La persécution ? La faim ? Le dénuement ? Le danger
? Le supplice ? .. J’en ai la certitude … rien ne pourra nous séparer de
l’amour de Dieu qui est en Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur.
Marcel DRIOT, 1995. Le Saint du jour. Médiaspaul, Paris, p.189
SOURCE : http://jardinierdedieu.fr/article-les-premiers-martyrs-de-l-eglise-de-rome-53163151.html
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Gustave Doré,
Les Martyrs Chrétiens, 1871, 139.7 x 213.4, Musée
d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg – MAMCS (67)
Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Christian Martyrs,
1871, 139.7 x 213.4, Strasbourg Museum
of Modern and Contemporary Art
LES
MARTYRS DES JARDINS DE NÉRON A ROME VERS LE Ier AOUT DE L'AN 64
Le 59 juillet 64,
commença l'incendie de Rome, qui dura neuf jours. Quand il fut éteint, une
immense population réduite au plus complet dénuement s'entassa aux enviions du
Champ de Mars, où Néron fit dresser des baraques et distribuer du pain et des
vivres. D'ordinaire, ces oisifs acclamaient l'empereur; maintenant qu'ils
avaient faim, ils le haïrent. Des accusations persistantes poursuivaient le
pitre impérial. On savait qu'il était venu d'Antium pour jouir de l'effroyable
spectacle dont la sublime horreur le transportait; on racontait même, ou du
moins on insinuait, que lui-même avait ordonné ce spectacle, tel qu'on n'en
avait jamais vu de pareil. Les accusations se haussaient jusqu'à la menace.
Néron, qui le sut, essaya de détourner les soupçons en jetant à la foule un nom
et une proie. Il y en avait un tout trouvé. En brûlant Rome, Néron avait blessé
au vif les préjugés tenaces d'un peuple conservateur au plus haut degré de ses
monuments religieux. Toute la friperie liturgique du paganisme, trophées, ex-votos,
dépouilles opimes, pénates, tout le matériel religieux du culte avait flambé.
L'horreur avait sa source dans le sentiment très vif de la religion et de la
patrie outragées. Or il y avait, à Rome même, un groupe de population que son
irréductible protestation contre les dieux de l'empire signalait à tous,
c'était la colonie juive ; une circonstance semblait accablante contre eux dans
l'enquête sur la responsabilité des récents désastres. Le feu avait pris dans
les échoppes du Grand-Cirque, occupées par des marchands orientaux, parmi
lesquels étaient beaucoup de Juifs. Mais il avait épargné la région de la
porte Capène et le Transtevère, dont les Juifs formaient presque exclusivement
la population. Ils n'avaient donc souffert quelque dommage qu'au Champ de Mars.
De là à inculper les Juifs il y avait peu à faire, cependant ils échappèrent ;
c'est que Néron était entouré de Juifs : Tibère Alexandre et Poppée étaient au
plus haut point de leur faveur ; dans un rang inférieur, des esclaves, des
actrices, des mimes, tous juifs et fort choyés. Est-ce trop s'avancer, que
d'attribuer à ce groupe l'odieux d'avoir fait tomber sur les chrétiens la
vengeance menaçante? Il faut se rappeler l'atroce jalousie que les Juifs
nourrissaient contre les chrétiens, et si on la rapproche « de ce fait
incontestable que les Juifs, avant la destruction de Jérusalem, furent les
vrais persécuteurs des chrétiens et ne négligèrent rien pour les faire
disparaître », on y trouvera le commentaire authentique d'un mot de saint
Clément Romain, qui, faisant allusion aux massacres de chrétiens ordonnés par
Néron, les attribue « à la jalousie, dia Zelon ».
Quand la rumeur se
répandit, à l'aide de ce que nous appellerions aujourd'hui « la pression
officielle », on fut surpris de la multitude de ceux qui suivaient la doctrine
du Christ, laquelle n'était autre chose, aux yeux du plus grand nombre, qu'un
schisme juif. Les gens sensés trouvèrent l'artifice pitoyable; l'accusation
d'incendie portée contre ces pauvres gens ne tenait pas debout; « leur vrai
crime, disait-on, c'est la haine du genre humain ».
Néanmoins on ne s'apitoya
pas longtemps, car on allait s'amuser. En effet, les jeux que l'on donna
dépassèrent en horreur tout ce que l'on avait jamais vu. Tacite et le pape
saint Clément nous ont laissé quelques traits de ces jeux, qui durèrent
peut-être plusieurs jours; nous donnons plus loin leurs trop courts récits,
dont la brièveté ne peut se passer du commentaire que l'on va lire.
« A la barbarie des
supplices, cette fois, on ajouta la dérision. Les victimes furent gardées pour
une fête, à laquelle on donna sans doute un caractère expiatoire. Rome compta
peu de journées aussi extraordinaires. Le ludus matutinus, consacré aux
combats d'animaux, vit un défilé inouï. Les condamnés, couverts de peaux de
bêtes fauves, furent lancés dans l'arène, où on les fit déchirer par des chiens
; d'autres furent crucifiés ; d'autres, enfin, revêtus de tuniques trempées
dans l'huile, la poix ou la résine, se virent attachés à des poteaux et
réservés pour éclairer la fête de nuit. Quand le jour baissa, on alluma ces
flambeaux vivants. Néron offrit pour le spectacle les magnifiques jardins qu'il
possédait au delà du Tibre et qui occupaient l'emplacement actuel du Borgo, de
la place et de l'église de Saint-Pierre. Il s'y trouvait un cirque, commencé
par Caligula, continué par Claude, et dont un obélisque, tiré d'Héliopolis
(celui-là même qui marque de nos jours le centre de la place Saint-Pierre),
était la borne. Cet endroit avait déjà vu des massacres aux flambeaux.
Caligula, en se promenant, y fit décapiter, à la lueur des torches, un certain
nombre de personnages consulaires, de sénateurs et de clames romaines. L'idée
de remplacer les falots par des corps humains, imprégnés de
substances inflammables, put paraître ingénieuse. Comme supplice,
cette façon de brûler vif n'était pas neuve; mais on n'en avait jamais fait un
système d'illumination. A la clarté de ces hideuses torches, Néron, qui avait
mis à la mode les courses du soir, se montra dans l'arène, tantôt mêlé au
peuple en habit de jockey, tantôt conduisant son char et recherchant les
applaudissements. Il y eut pourtant quelques signes de compassion. Même ceux
qui croyaient à la culpabilité des chrétiens et qui avouaient qu'ils avaient
mérité le dernier supplice eurent horreur de ces cruels plaisirs. Les hommes
sages eussent voulu qu'on fit seulement ce qu'exigeait l'utilité publique,
qu'on purgeât la ville d'hommes dangereux, mais qu'on n'eût pas l'air de
sacrifier des criminels à la férocité d'un seul.
« Des femmes, des vierges
furent mêlées à ces jeux horribles. On se fit une fête des indignités sans nom
qu'elles souffrirent. L'usage s'était établi, sous Néron, de faire jouer aux
condamnés, dans l'amphithéâtre. des rôles mythologiques entraînant la mort de
l'acteur. Ces hideux opéras, où la science des machines atteignait à des effets
prodigieux, étaient chose nouvelle ; la Grèce eût été surprise si on lui eût
suggéré une pareille tentative pour appliquer la férocité à l'esthétique, pour
faire de l'art avec la torture. Le malheureux était introduit dans l'arène,
costumé en dieu ou en héros voué à la mort, puis représentait, par son
supplice, quelque scène tragique des fables consacrées par les sculpteurs et
les poètes. Tantôt c'était Hercule furieux brûlé sur le mont Oeta, arrachant de
dessus sa peau la tunique de poix enflammée ; tantôt Orphée mis eu pièces par
un ours, Dédale précipité du ciel et dévoré par les bêtes, Pasiphaé subissant
les étreintes du taureau, Atys meurtri ; quelquefois c'étaient d'horribles
mascarades, où les hommes étaient accoutrés en prêtres de Saturne, le manteau
rouge sur le dos, les femmes en prêtresses de Cérès, portant les bandelettes au
front ; d'autres fois enfin, des pièces dramatiques, au courant desquelles le
héros était réellement mis à mort, comme Lauréolus, ou bien des représentations
d'actes tragiques, comme celui de Mucius Scaevola. A la fin, Mercure, avec une
verge de fer rougie au feu, touchait chaque cadavre pour voir s'il remuait; des
valets masqués, représentant Pluton ou l'Orcus, traînaient les morts par les
pieds, assommant avec des maillets tout ce qui palpitait encore.
« Les dames
chrétiennes les plus respectables durent se prêter à ces monstruosités. Les
unes jouèrent le rôle des Danaïdes, les autres celui de Dircé. Il est difficile
de dire en quoi la fable des Danaïdes pouvait fournir un tableau sanglant. Le
supplice que toute la tradition mythologique attribue à ces femmes coupables,
et dans lequel on les représentait, n'était pas assez cruel pour suffire aux plaisirs
de Néron et des habitués de son amphithéâtre. Peut-être défilèrent-elles
portant des urnes et reçurent-elles le coup fatal d'un acteur figurant Lyncée.
Peut-être vit-on Amymone, l'une des Danaïdes, poursuivie par un satyre et
violée par Neptune. Peut-être enfin ces malheureuses traversèrent-elles
successivement devant les spectateurs la série des supplices du Tartare et
moururent-elles après des heures de tourments.
« Quant aux supplices des
Dircés, il n'y a pas de doute. On connaît le groupe colossal désigné sous le
nom de Taureau Farnèse, maintenant au musée de Naples. Amphion et Zethus
attachent Dircé aux cornes d'un taureau indompté, qui doit la traîner à travers
les rochers et les ronces du Cithéron. Ce médiocre marbre rhodien, transporté à
Rome dès le temps d'Auguste, était l'objet de l'universelle admiration. Quel
plus beau sujet pour cet art hideux que la cruauté du temps avait mis en vogue
et qui consistait à faire des tableaux vivants avec les statues célèbres? Un
texte et une fresque de Pompei semblent prouver que cette scène terrible était
souvent représentée dans les arènes, quand on avait à supplicier une femme.
Attachées nues par les cheveux aux cornes d'un taureau furieux, les
malheureuses assouvissaient les regards lubriques d'un peuple féroce.
Quelques-unes des chrétiennes immolées de la sorte étaient faibles de corps ;
leur courage fut surhumain; mais la foule infâme n'eut d'yeux que pour leurs
entrailles ouvertes et leurs seins déchirés. »
TACITE, Annales,
liv. XV, ch. XLIV. — CLÉMENT ROMAIN, Epître aux Corinthiens, I, ch. III, V et
VI. — SUÉTONE, Néron, 16. — Pour la discussion des textes, leur valeur
critique, voyez : RENAN, Origines du christianisme, t. IV (cité ici pour
le commentaire du texte), p. 152 et suiv. — P. ALLARD, Hist. des Perséc.,
t. 1, p. 33 et suiv.: «L'incendie de Rome et les martyrs d'août 64. » —
Douais, La persécution des chrétiens de Rome en l'année 64, dans la Rev.
des Quest. hist. du 1er octobre 1885, en réponse à Recasa : : La
persécution des chrétiens sous Néron (1884).—Ramsay, The Church in the Roman
Empire (1884), p. 232 et suiv., et les ouvrages de DOULCET, MILMAN,
NEUMANN, traitant des rapports de l'Eglise avec l'Etat Romain. — BAUER, Christus
und die Caesaren (1877), p. 273. — ARNOLD, Die Neronische Christenverfolgung,
p. 105. — SCRILLER, Gesch. d. Kaiserrechts enter der Regierung des Nero,
p. 437. — Voyez la note de HOLBROOKE ad Tacit., Annal. XV, 44. —
ATTILIO PROFUMO, Le fonti ed i tempi dell' incendio neroniano, in-4°,
Roma, 1904.
1° TACITE (Annales, XV,
44)
Ni les efforts humains,
ni les largesses du prince, ni les prières aux dieux, ne détruisirent la
persuasion que Néron avait eu l'infamie d'ordonner l'incendie. Pour faire taire
cette rumeur, Néron produisit des accusés et livra aux supplices le plus raffinés
les hommes odieux à cause de leurs crimes que le vulgaire nommait « chrétiens
». Celui dont ils tiraient ce nom, Christ, avait été sous le règne de Tibère
supplicié par le procurateur Ponce-Pilate. Réprimée d'abord, l'exécrable
superstition faisait irruption de nouveau, non seulement en Judée, berceau de
ce fléau, mais jusque dans Rome, où reflue et sé rassemble ce qu'il y a partout
ailleurs de plus atroce et de plus honteux. On saisit d'abord ceux qui
avouaient; puis, sur leur déposition, une grande multitude, convaincue moins du
crime d'incendie que de la haine du genre humain. On ajouta la dérision au
supplice ; des hommes enveloppés de peaux de bêtes moururent déchirés par les
chiens, ou furent attachés à des croix, ou furent destinés à être enflammés et,
à la chute du jour, allumés en guise de luminaire nocturne. Néron avait prêté
ses jardins pour ce divertissement et y donnait des courses, mêlé à la foule en
habit de cocher, ou monté sur un char. Aussi, quoique coupables et dignes des
derniers supplices, on avait pitié de ces hommes, parce qu'ils étaient
sacrifiés, non à l'utilité publique, mais à la barbarie d'un seul.
2° SAINT CLÉMENT ROMAIN
(Epître, I, 6)
[A Pierre et à Paul] on
joignit une grande multitude d'élus qui endurèrent beaucoup d'affronts et de
supplices, laissant aux chrétiens un illustre exemple. Par l'effet de la
jalousie, des femmes, les Danaïdes et les Dircés, après avoir souffert de
terribles et monstrueuses indignités, ont atteint leur but dans la course
sacrée de la foi, et ont reçu la noble récompense, toutes faibles de corps
qu'elles étaient.
LES
MARTYRS. TOME I. LES TEMPS NÉRONIENS ET LE DEUXIÈME SIÈCLE.
Recueil de pièces authentiques sur les martyrs depuis les origines du
christianisme jusqu'au XXe siècle traduites et publiées par le B. P. DOM
H. LECLERCQ, Moine bénédictin de Saint-Michel de Farnborough. Précédé d’une
Introduction. Quatrième édition. Imprimi potest FR. FERDINANDUS CABROL, Abbas
Sancti Michaelis Farnborough. Die 4 Maii 1903. Imprimatur. Turonibus, die
18 Octobris 1920. P. BATAILLE, vic. Gen. Animulae Nectareae Eorginae Franciscae
Stuart.
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/martyrs/martyrs0001.htm#_Toc90633597
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904). Prière
des Martyrs chrétiens à Rome. 1863-1883, 87.9 X 150.1, Walters Art Museum
Saints premiers martyrs
de l'Eglise de Rome : par le sang versé
ARTICLE | 28/06/2003 |
Numéro 1328 | Par Marie-Christine Lafon
«Martyr»... le mot est
ancien.
Avec le Christ, sa
signification est nouvelle. D'origine grecque, «martyr» désigne une personne
capable de fournir des renseignements puisés dans sa mémoire, celui qui, ayant
vu ou entendu, se souvient et peut témoigner. En latin, on traduit
«testimonium», ce qui donne en français «témoin». On tua d'abord les chrétiens,
parce qu'ils étaient martyrs, témoins de Jésus ; ensuite, on appela martyrs
ceux-là qui avaient été tués pour leur Foi. Tout chrétien peut être appelé,
comme le Christ, à «rendre témoignage» (1) par le sang versé.
Ainsi, en juillet 64, un
violent incendie ravage durant plusieurs jours les quarts de Rome. Est-il dû au
hasard ou à la malignité de l'empereur Néron, qui voulait reconstruire la ville
à son idée ? On ne le sait. Aussi, pour effacer la rumeur selon laquelle
l'incendie a été ordonné par le prince, celui-ci condamne les chrétiens comme
responsables, et organise dans ses jardins des jeux dont ils seront les proies
des bêtes, ou les torches vivantes quand le jour déclinera...
Ils seront des centaines
à préférer subir la fureur d'un tyran que de cacher leur identité de chrétiens.
Parmi eux, très probablement, leur chef, Pierre.
Maintenant étendu sur sa
croix, Pierre se souvient de la nuit où il dit à Jésus sur le lac de Génésareth
: «Donne- moi l'ordre de venir à Toi en marchant sur les eaux». Comme à ce
moment-là, il a l'impression de s'enfoncer dans l'eau, il pousse le même cri :
«Seigneur, sauve-moi !» A cette seconde, Jésus lui avait tendu la main. On la
lui prend : le soldat lui plaque le poignet sur le bois. Plus que les coups de
marteau, Pierre sent la main de Jésus dans la sienne. «Jésus, je Te remercie de
m'avoir fait confiance... Merci pour tout le chemin fait ensemble. Tu sais, la
fin du parcours est difficile... oui, Tu sais.»
Des amis se sont glissés
dans les gradins le plus près possible de lui. «Dis-nous quelque chose !»,
«N'ayez pas peur, n'ayez pas peur.»
Dans le cirque,
désormais, il fait nuit. Pour lui, c'est l'aurore.
Marie-Christine Lafon
(1) Apocalypse 1, 5 ; 3,
14
(2) Pierre 4-15.
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Eugène
Thirion (1839-1910). Triomphe de la Foi. Martyrs chrétiens au temps de
Néron, 89 x 146, Collection particulière
PREMIERS MARTYRS DE
L’ÉGLISE DE ROME
Lundi 15 avril 2019,
par Secrétariat // LE
SAINT DU JOUR
Les Premiers martyrs de
l’Église de Rome concerne, suivant l’hagiographie catholique, le nom donné à un
groupe indéterminé de chrétiens victimes du premier épisode de persécution des
chrétiens qui prend place à Rome entre 64 et 68 à l’instigation de Néron à la
suite du grand incendie de Rome.
Un violent incendie se
déclare à Rome en 64, que les pompiers de l’Urbs ne peuvent maîtriser. La
rumeur court alors que la catastrophe serait le fait de Néron, désireux de
détruire les quartiers insalubres et de rebâtir la ville.
L’historien Tacite, tout
en étant réservé quant à l’origine de l’incendie (« Fut-il dû au hasard ou
à la malignité du prince, on ne sait ») rapporte dans ses Annales (XV, 44)
que l’empereur était incapable de faire taire la rumeur dévastatrice :
« Aucun moyen humain, ni largesses princières, ni cérémonies expiatoires
ne faisaient reculer la rumeur infamante d’après laquelle l’incendie avait été
ordonné ». Les chrétiens – un groupe religieux minuscule, encore mal distingué
des juifs – sont choisis comme boucs émissaires : « [Néron] supposa
des coupable et infligea des tourments raffinés à ceux que leurs abominations
faisaient détester et que la foule appelait "Chrétiens" ».
Tacite décrit les
supplices atroces auxquels les chrétiens sont soumis (et qui ont largement
alimenté l’iconographie chrétienne) : « On ne se contenta pas de les
faire périr ; on se fit un jeu de les revêtir de peaux de bêtes pour
qu’ils fussent déchirés par la dent des chiens, ou bien ils étaient attachés à
des croix et enduits de matières inflammables, quand le jour avait fui, ils
éclairaient les ténèbres comme des torches… ». Tacite n’a aucune attirance
personnelle pour cette « détestable superstition ». Cependant, à la
vue de ce spectacle horrible, il en vient à éprouver quelque sympathie :
« Aussi quoique ces gens fussent coupables et dignes des dernières
rigueurs on se mettait à les prendre en pitié ».
Sans se prononcer sur la
culpabilité des chrétiens, Tacite propose une théorie du bouc émissaire lui
permettant de faire ressortir la cruauté et l’arbitraire de l’empereur et non
par sympathie pour les chrétiens qui sont amalgamés aux juifs, porteurs à ses
yeux d’une même « haine du genre humain ».
Suétone mentionne
également une persécution au milieu d’une liste de mesures prises par Néron mais
sans la lier à l’incendie.
Les chrétiens sont
peut-être visés après avoir vu dans l’incendie le signe précurseur de
l’imminence de la fin du monde : se répandant dans les rues pour appeler à
la conversion, tombant ainsi sous le coup du crime de prosélytisme, ils
auraient ainsi attiré l’attention sur eux. Ils sont condamnés comme
incendiaires et subissent une peine réflexive : ils sont eux-mêmes, pour
certains, brûlés vifs dans les jardins impériaux ; d’autres sont utilisés
pour des jeux de rôle de type mythologiques ou des jeux de chasse, dont est
friand le public romain, dans les arènes du cirque du Vatican. Ils sont
condamnés en vertu de la lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis sans que leur
religion ne rentre pour autant en ligne de compte. Ainsi, la justification de
cette première persécution par un hypothétique institutum neronianum relève de
la légende.
Une tradition de la
communauté chrétienne de Rome lie dès la fin du Ier siècle à cet épisode la mort
des apôtres Pierre et Paul de Tarse, comme en atteste pour la première fois
Clément de Rome dans son épître aux Corinthiens, bien qu’on n’en connaisse rien
d’un point de vue historique. La communauté chrétienne de Rome sera prompte,
malgré le traumatisme subi, à dédouaner le pouvoir impérial de cette
persécution suivant l’injonction paulinienne de se soumettre « à toute
institution humaine » et Clément de Rome lui-même impute les victimes
néroniennes et la mort des deux apôtres à des tensions intra-communautaires.
Suivant cette tradition,
l’apôtre Pierre aurait été crucifié et son corps fut déposé dans une sépulture
au flanc de la colline du Vatican soit en 64, soit en 67. L’apôtre Paul de
Tarse, suivant une tradition remontant au IIIe siècle, aurait lui été décapité
aux Aquae Salvae, sur la route d’Ostie, en 65 ou 67, à l’emplacement de
l’actuelle basilique Saint-Paul-hors-les-Murs.
SOURCE : https://www.paroissedelimogne.fr/PREMIERS-MARTYRS-DE-L-EGLISE-DE-ROME.html
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Jules Eugène Lenepveu, I
martiri nelle catacombe, 1855, Parigi, Museo d'Orsay
24 June on
some calendars
Profile
Christians who
were blamed by
the Roman Emperor Nero with
setting fire to Rome, Italy,
and were sentenced to death as
punishment. They were all disciples of the Apostles. The total number of these
murders is known only to God.
martyred in 64 in
a variety of ways, the gorier the better from Nero‘s
point of view; some were covered with the skins of animals and
thrown to wild dogs to
be torn apart; others were crucified and at sunset were covered in oil and used
as human torches
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
nettsteder
i norsk
Readings
O God, who consecrated
that abundant first fruits of the Roman Church by the blood of the Martyrs,
grant, we pray, that with firm courage we may together draw strength from so
great a struggle and ever rejoice at the triumph of faithful love. Through our
Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. – collect for the liturgy of the
First Martyrs of Rome
MLA
Citation
“First Martyrs of
Rome“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 April 2024. Web. 9 June 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/first-martyrs-of-rome/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/first-martyrs-of-rome/
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Henryk Siemiradzki (1843–1902), Martyre
romaine, / Christian Dirce, 1897, 263 x 530, National Museum in Warsaw
Book of
Saints – Martyrs of Rome – 24 June
Article
(Saints)
(June
24) (1st
century) These, many hundreds in number, are the Christians put
to death by the Emperor Nero (A.D. 64) on the absurd charge that it was they
who had caused the great Fire of Rome, probably his own work. The strange and
horrible deaths they suffered are well known. Some, sewn up in the skins of
animals, were thrown to the wild beasts in the Amphitheatre; others, besmeared
with oil, were used as torches to illuminate the Imperial Gardens; others were
crucified, etc, etc.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Martyrs of Rome”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
28 November 2014. Web. 9 June 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-martyrs-of-rome-24-june/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-martyrs-of-rome-24-june/
First Martyrs of the See
of Rome
Feastday: June 30
Death: 64
The holy men and women
are also called the “Protomartyrs of Rome.” They were accused of burning Rome by Nero ,
who burned Rome to
cover his own crimes. Some martyrs were burned as living torches at evening
banquets, some crucified, others were fed to wild animals. These martyrs died
before Sts. Peter and Paul, and are called “disciples of the Apostles. . . whom
the Holy Roman church sent to their Lord before
the Apostles’ death.”
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3385
First Martyrs of Rome
Feastday: June 30
Many martyrs who suffered
death under Emperor Nero .
Owing to their executions during the reign of Emperor Nero, they are called the
Neronian Martyrs, and they are also termed the Protomartyrs of Rome, being
honored by the site in Vatican City called the Piazza of the Protomartyrs.
These early Christians were disciples of the Apostles, and they endured hideous
tortures and ghastly deaths following the burning of Rome in
the infamous fire of 62.Their dignity in suffering, and their fervor to the
end, did not provide Nero or
the Romans with
the public diversion desired. Instead, the faith was
firmly planted in the Eternal City.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4937
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Karl
Theodor von Piloty, Nero Walks on Rome’s Cinders, circa 1861,
446 x 582, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National
Gallery
Saints
of the Day – Roman Martyrs under Nero
Article
Died 64. On a summer’s
day, July 19, in the reign of the Emperor Nero, the city of Rome caught fire.
For six days the fire raged, from the foot of the Palatine Hill to the outer
suburbs, and only by the demolition of property to create a gap in the path of
the flames were four districts of the city preserved.
The mystery of the fire’s
origin was never solved, but it was thought to be due to incendiarism. There
was an ugly rumor that Nero himself had set fire to his own capital, and that
slaves of the imperial household had been seen spreading the flames. Nero was
at Antium when it occurred, and for three days, despite urgent messages, made
no move and issued no instructions; only after this delay did he return to the
capital, and from the Tower of Macaenas he surveyed the blazing city.
With a lyre in his hand and
in a theatrical pose, he declaimed Homer’s account of the destruction of Troy,
and it was this incident which gave rise to the legend that Nero fiddled while
Rome burned. Though it is unlikely that he caused the calamity, the suspicion
was strengthened by his annexation, after the fire, of a considerable part of
the desolated area for the erection of his ‘Golden House,’ a palace of immense
size, with triple colonnades a mile long, where, he declared, ‘now at last he
was housed like a human being.’
But the growth of the
rumor spread by the outraged population who were homeless and without food, and
also the fear of revolution, obliged him to take counter measures. The imperial
gardens were thrown open as a refuge to the destitute, temporary buildings were
improvised, welfare and food services were organized; and, to divert attention
from himself, he turned upon the Christians and openly declared that they were
responsible.
Then began the most
ruthless persecution. He ranged against them not only him own bitter hostility
but also the rage and hatred of the populace. Tacitus records the grim story:
“They died in torments and their torments were embittered by insult and
derision. Some were nailed on crosses, others sewn up in the skins of wild
beasts and exposed to the fury of dogs, others again, smeared over with
combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of
night.” Rarely has the world known such a spectacle of horror as when the
gardens of Nero blazed with this fiendish carnival.
How many suffered is
beyond compute. We only know that through the deserted streets and among the
smoldering ruins the Christians were hunted like rats and, when caught, became
the victims of Nero’s insensate fury. They were nights of horror and days when
no man could trust his neighbor. Whole families were rounded up and sent to
death. In the pages of the martyrs there is an honored place for these unknown
victims who suffered for the faith and in the patience of Christ, and left
behind them an imperishable memory (Gill).
MLA
Citation
Katherine I
Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info.
29 June 2020. Web. 30 June 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-roman-martyrs-under-nero/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-roman-martyrs-under-nero/
Solemnities & Holy
Days: First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church
Feast Day: June 30
Patronage: All
Christians
These early Christians
were the first persecuted in mass by the Emperor Nero in the year 64 A.D.,
before the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. Nero was widely believed to have
caused the fire that burned down much of Rome in that same year. He blamed
the fire on Christians and put them to death, many by crucifixion, being fed to
the wild animals in the circus, or by being tied to posts and lit up as human
torches.
These Holy martyrs were
called the “Disciples of the Apostles” and their firmness in the face of their
gruesome deaths were a powerful testimony that led to many conversions in the
early Roman Church. These were all early Christians in Rome within a
dozen or so years after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts
of the “Apostle of the Gentiles” Romans 15:20. Paul had not yet visited
them at the time he wrote his great letter in 57-58 A.D.
There was a large Jewish
population in Rome. Probably as a result of Controversy between Jews and
Jewish Christians, the Emperor expelled all Jews from Rome in 49-50 A.D.
Historians tell us that the expulsion was due to disturbances in the city,
“Caused by certain Christians”. It is believed that many came back after
the Emperor’s death in 54 A.D., because Paul’s letter was addressed to a Church
with members from Jewish and Gentile backgrounds.
In July of 64 A.D., more
than half of Rome was destroyed by fire. Rumor blamed the tragedy on
Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. He shifted the blame by accusing
the Christians. According to the Historian Tacitus, many Christians were
put to death because of their “hatred of the human race”. Peter and Paul
were probably among the victims of this time. Eventually Nero was
threatened by an army revolt and condemned to death by the senate, and committed
suicide in 68 A.D. at the age of 30 because of these, the first of Christian
martyrs being falsely blamed.
Wherever the Good News of
Jesus was preached, it met the same opposition as Jesus did, and many of those
who began to follow him shared his sufferings and death. Notice how no
human force could stop the Spirit unleashed upon the world through the
Christians? They only became stronger witnesses to the faith. Pope
Clement I, third successor of St. Peter writes, “It was through envy and
jealousy that the greatest and most upright pillars of the church were
persecuted and struggled unto death… First of all, Peter whom because of
unreasonable jealousy suffered not merely once or twice, but many times, and,
having thus given his witness, went to the place of glory that he
deserved. It was through jealousy and conflict that Paul showed the way
to the prize for perseverance. He was put in chains seven times, sent
into exile, and stoned; a herald both in the east and the west, he achieved a
noble fame by his faith.” We too, can follow the examples of the Great Saints
that went before us, paving the way of our faith that has stood the many
centuries of time. Don’t forget to call upon the First Holy Martyrs of
the Holy Roman Church on this their Feast Day – as they are always willing to
help us, if only we call upon them for assistance.
SOURCE : https://connection.newmanministry.com/saint/first-holy-martyrs-of-the-holy-roman-church/
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Santi Protomartiri Romani (Rome ; Santi Protomartiri Romani (Rome)
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Santi Protomartiri Romani (Rome ; Santi Protomartiri Romani (Rome)
Butler’s
Lives of the Saints – Martyrs of Rome under Nero
Article
Tertullian observes, that
it was the honour of the Christian religion that Nero, the most avowed enemy to
all virtue, was the first Roman emperor who declared against it a most bloody
war. The sanctity and purity of the manners of the primitive Christians was a
sufficient motive to stir up the rage of that monster; and he took the
following occasion to draw his sword against them. The city of Rome had been
set on fire, and had burned nine days, from the 19th to the 28th of July, in
the year 64; in which terrible conflagration, out of the fourteen regions or
quarters into which it was then divided, three were entirely laid in ashes,
seven of them were miserably defaced and filled with the ruins of half-burnt
buildings, and only four entirely escaped this disaster. During this horrible
tragedy, Nero came from Antium to Rome, and seated himself on the top of a
tower upon a neighbouring hill, in the theatrical dress of a musician, singing
a poem which himself had composed on the burning of Troy. The people accused
him of being the author of this calamity, and said he caused fire to be set to
the city that he might glut his eyes with an image of the burning of Troy.
Tillemont, Crevier, and other judicious critics make no doubt but he was the
author of this calamity. Suetonius and Dion Cassius positively charge him with
it. Tacitus indeed doubts whether the fire was owing to accident or to the
wickedness of the prince; but by a circumstance which he mentions, it appears
that the flame was at least kept up and spread for several days by the tyrant’s
orders; for several men hindered all that attempted to extinguish the fire, and
increased it by throwing lighted torches among the houses, saying they were
ordered so to do. In which, had they been private villains, they would not have
been supported and backed, but brought to justice. Besides, when the fire had
raged seven days, and destroyed every thing from the great circus, at the foot
of mount Palatine, to the further end of the Esquiliæ, and had ceased for want
of fuel, the buildings being in that place thrown down, it broke out again in
Tigellinus’s gardens, which place increased suspicion, and continued burning
two days more. Besides envying the fate of Priam, who saw his country laid in
ashes, Nero had an extravagant passion to make a new Rome, which should be
built in a more sumptuous manner, and extended as far as Ostia to the sea; he
wanted room in particular to enlarge his own palace; accordingly, he
immediately rebuilt his palace of an immense extent, and adorned all over with
gold, mother-of-pearl, precious stones, and whatever the world afforded that
was rich and curious, so that he called it the Golden Palace. But this was
pulled down after his death. The tyrant seeing himself detested by all mankind
as the author of this calamity, to turn off the odium and infamy of such an
action from himself, and at the same time to gratify his hatred of virtue and
thirst after blood, he charged the Christians with having set the city on fire.
Tacitus testifies, that nobody believed them guilty; yet the idolaters, out of
extreme aversion to their religion, rejoiced in their punishment.
The Christians therefore
were seized, treated as victims of the hatred of all mankind, insulted even in
their torments and death, and made to serve for spectacles of diversion and
scorn to the people. Some were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed
to dogs to be torn to pieces: others were hung on crosses set in rows, and many
perished by flames, being burnt in the night-time that their execution might
serve for fires and light, says Tacitus. This is further illustrated by Seneca,
Juvenal, and his commentator, who say that Nero punished the magicians, (by
which impious name they meant the Christians,) causing them to be besmeared over
with wax, pitch, and other combustible matter, with a sharp spike put under
their chin to make them hold it upright in their torments, and thus to be burnt
alive. Tacitus adds, that Nero gave his own gardens to serve for a theatre to
this spectacle. The Roman Martyrology makes a general mention of all these
martyrs on the 24th of June, styling them the disciples of the apostles, and
the first fruits of the innumerable martyrs with which Rome, so fruitful in
that divine seed, peopled heaven. These suffered in the year 64, before the
apostles SS. Peter and Paul, who had pointed out the way to them by their holy
instructions. After this commencement of the persecution, laws were made, and
edicts published throughout the Roman empire, which forbade the profession of
the faith under the most cruel torments and death, as is mentioned by Sulpicius
Severus, Orosius, and others. No sooner had the imperial laws commanded that
there should be no Christians, but the senate, the magistrates, the people of
Rome, all the orders of the empire, and every city rose up against them, says
Origen. Yet the people of God increased the more in number and strength the
more they were oppressed, as the Jews in Egypt had done under Pharoah.
MLA
Citation
Father Alban Butler.
“Martyrs of Rome, under Nero”. Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. CatholicSaints.Info.
25 June 2013. Web. 30 June 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-martyrs-of-rome-under-nero/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-martyrs-of-rome-under-nero/
Martyr
The Greek word martus signifies
a witness who testifies to a fact of which he has knowledge from
personal observation. It is in this sense that the term first appears in Christian literature;
the Apostles were "witnesses" of all that they had observed in the
public life of Christ,
as well as of all they had learned from His teaching, "in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea,
and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts
1:8). St. Peter, in his address to the Apostles and disciples relative to
the election of a successor to Judas,
employs the term with this meaning: "Wherefore, of these men who have
accompanied with us all the time that the Lord
Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of
John until the day he was taken up from us, one of these must be made witness with
us of his resurrection"
(Acts
1:22). In his first public discourse the chief of the Apostles speaks of
himself and his companions as "witnesses" who saw the risen Christ
and subsequently, after the miraculous escape
of the Apostles from prison,
when brought a second time before the tribunal, Peter again alludes to the
twelve as witnesses to Christ,
as the Prince and Saviour of Israel,
Who rose from the dead; and added that in giving their public testimony to the
facts, of which they were certain, they must obey God rather
than man (Acts
5:29 sqq.). In his First Epistle St. Peter also refers to himself as a
"witness of the sufferings
of Christ" (1
Peter 5:1).
But even in these first
examples of the use of the word martus in Christian terminology
a new shade of meaning is already noticeable, in addition to the accepted
signification of the term. The disciples of Christ were no ordinary witnesses
such as those who gave testimony in a court of justice.
These latter ran no risk in bearing testimony to facts that came under their
observation, whereas the witnesses of Christ were brought face to face daily,
from the beginning of their apostolate, with the possibility of incurring
severe punishment and even death itself. Thus, St. Stephen was a witness who
early in the history of Christianity sealed
his testimony with his blood. The careers of the Apostles were at all times
beset with dangers of the gravest character, until eventually they all suffered
the last penalty for their convictions. Thus, within the lifetime of the
Apostles, the term martus came to be used in the sense of a witness
who at any time might be called upon to deny what he testified to, under
penalty of death. From this stage the transition was easy to the ordinary
meaning of the term, as used ever since in Christian literature:
a martyr, or witness of Christ,
is a person who,
though he has never seen nor heard the Divine Founder of the Church,
is yet so firmly convinced of the truths of
the Christian
religion, that he gladly suffers death rather than deny it. St. John, at
the end of the first century, employs the word with this meaning; Antipas, a
convert from paganism,
is spoken of as a "faithful witness (martus) who was slain among you,
where Satan dwelleth"
(Revelation
2:13). Further on the same Apostle speaks of the "souls of them that
were slain for the Word of God and
for the testimony (martyrian) which they held" (Revelation
6:9).
Yet, it was only by
degrees, in the course of the first age of the Church,
that the term martyr came to be exclusively applied to those who had died for
the faith.
The grandsons of St.
Jude, for example, on their escape from the peril they underwent when cited
before Domitian were
afterwards regarded as martyrs (Eusebius,
"Hist. eccl", III, xx, xxxii). The famous confessors of Lyons,
who endured so bravely awful
tortures for their belief,
were looked upon by their fellow-Christians as martyrs, but they themselves
declined this title as of right belonging only to those who had actually died:
"They are already martyrs whom Christ has deemed worthy to be taken up in
their confession, having sealed their testimony by their departure; but we are
confessors mean and lowly" (Eusebius,
op. cit., V, ii). This distinction between martyrs and confessors is thus
traceable to the latter part of the second century: those only were martyrs who
had suffered the extreme penalty, whereas the title of confessors was given
to Christians who
had shown their willingness to die for their belief,
by bravely enduring imprisonment or
torture, but were not put
to death. Yet the term martyr was still sometimes applied during the third
century to persons still
living, as, for instance, by St.
Cyprian, who gave the title of martyrs to a number of bishops, priests,
and laymen condemned
to penal servitude in the mines (Ep. 76). Tertullian speaks
of those arrested as Christians and
not yet condemned as martyres designati. In the fourth century, St.
Gregory of Nazianzus alludes to St.
Basil as "a martyr", but evidently employs the term in the
broad sense in which the word is still sometimes applied to a person who
has borne many and grave hardships in the cause of Christianity.
The description of a martyr given by the pagan historian
Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII, xvii), shows that by the middle of the fourth
century the title was everywhere reserved to those who had actually suffered
death for their faith.
Heretics and schismatics put
to death as Christians were
denied the title of martyrs (St.
Cyprian, Treatise
on Unity 14; St.
Augustine, Ep. 173; Euseb., Church
History V.16, V.21). St.
Cyprian lays down clearly the general principle that "he cannot
be a martyr who is not in the Church;
he cannot attain unto the kingdom who forsakes that which shall reign
there." St.
Clement of Alexandria strongly disapproves (Stromata IV.4)
of some heretics who
gave themselves up to the law;
they "banish themselves without being martyrs".
The orthodox were
not permitted to seek martyrdom. Tertullian,
however, approves the conduct of the Christians of
a province of Asia who
gave themselves up to the governor, Arrius Antoninus (Ad. Scap., v). Eusebius also
relates with approval the incident of three Christians of
Cæsarea in Palestine who, in the persecution of Valerian,
presented themselves to the judge and were condemned to death (Church
History VII.12). But while circumstances might sometimes excuse such a
course, it was generally held to be imprudent. St.
Gregory of Nazianzus sums up in a sentence the rule to be followed in
such cases: it is mere rashness to seek death, but it is cowardly to refuse it
(Orat. xlii, 5, 6). The example of a Christian of Smyrna named
Quintus, who, in the time of St.
Polycarp, persuaded several of his fellow believers to declare
themselves Christians,
was a warning of what might happen to the over-zealous: Quintus at the last
moment apostatized,
though his companions persevered. Breaking idols was condemned by the Council
of Elvira (306), which, in its sixtieth canon, decreed that a Christian put
to death for such vandalism would not be enrolled as a martyr.
Lactantius, on the other hand, has only mild censure for a Christian of Nicomedia who
suffered martyrdom for tearing down the edict of persecution (Do
mort. pers., xiii). In one case St.
Cyprian authorizes seeking martyrdom. Writing to his priests and deacons regarding
repentant lapsi who
were clamouring to be received back into communion, the bishop after
giving general directions on the subject, concludes by saying that if these
impatient personages are so eager to get back to the Church there
is a way of doing so open to them. "The struggle is still going
forward", he says, "and the strife is waged daily. If they (the lapsi)
truly and with constancy repent of what they have done, and the fervour of
their faith prevails,
he who cannot be delayed may be crowned"
(Ep. xiii).
Legal basis of the
persecutions
Acceptance of the
national religion in antiquity was an obligation incumbent
on all citizens; failure to worship the gods of the State was equivalent to
treason. This universally accepted principle is responsible for the various
persecutions suffered by Christians before
the reign of Constantine; Christians denied
the existence of and therefore refused to worship the gods of the state
pantheon. They were in consequence regarded as atheists.
It is true,
indeed, that the Jews also
rejected the gods of Rome,
and yet escaped persecution.
But the Jews,
from the Roman standpoint, had a national religion and a national God, Jehovah,
whom they had a full legal right to worship. Even after the destruction
of Jerusalem,
when the Jews ceased
to exist as a nation, Vespasian made
no change in their religious status, save that the tribute formerly sent
by Jews to
the temple at Jerusalem was
henceforth to be paid to the Roman exchequer. For some time after its
establishment, the Christian
Church enjoyed the religious privileges of the Jewish nation, but from
the nature of the case it is apparent that the chiefs of the Jewish
religion would not long permit without protest this state of things.
For they abhorred Christ's
religion as much as they abhorred its Founder. At what date the Roman
authorities had their attention directed to the difference between the Jewish
and the Christian religion
cannot be determined, but it appears to be fairly well established that laws proscribing Christianity were
enacted before the end of the first century. Tertullian is
authority for the statement that persecution of
the Christians was institutum
Neronianum — an institution of Nero —
(Ad nat., i, 7). The First Epistle of St. Peter also clearly alludes to the
proscription of Christians,
as Christians,
at the time it was written (I, St. Peter, iv, 16). Domitian (81-96)
also, is known to have punished
with death Christian members
of his own family on
the charge of atheism (Suetonius,
"Domitianus", xv). While it is therefore probable that the formula:
"Let there be no Christians"
(Christiani non sint) dates from the second half of the first century, yet the
earliest clear enactment on the subject of Christianity is
that of Trajan (98-117)
in his famous letter to the younger Pliny, his legate in
Bithynia.
Pliny had been sent
from Rome by
the emperor to restore order in the Province of Bithynia-Pontus. Among the
difficulties he encountered in the execution of his commission one of the most
serious concerned the Christians.
The extraordinarily large number of Christians he
found within his jurisdiction greatly
surprised him: the contagion of their "Superstition", he reported
to Trajan,
affected not only the cities but even the villages and country districts of the
province (Pliny, Ep., x, 96). One consequence of the general defection from the
state religion was of an economic order:
so many people had become Christians that
purchasers were no longer found for the victims that once in great numbers were
offered to the gods. Complaints were laid before the legate relative
to this state of affairs, with the result that some Christians were
arrested and brought before Pliny for examination. The suspects were
interrogated as to their tenets and those of them who persisted in declining
repeated invitations to recant were executed. Some of the prisoners,
however, after first affirming that they were Christians,
afterwards, when threatened with punishment, qualified their first admission by
saying that at one time they had been adherents of the proscribed body but were
so no longer. Others again denied that they were or ever had been Christians.
Having never before had to deal with questions concerning Christians Pliny
applied to the emperor for instructions on three points regarding which he did
not see his way clearly: first, whether the age of the accused should be taken
into consideration in meting out punishment; secondly, whether Christians who
renounced their belief should
be pardoned; and thirdly, whether the mere profession of Christianity should
be regarded as a crime, and punishable as such, independent of the fact of the
innocence or guilt of the accused of the crimes ordinarily associated with such
profession.
To these inquiries Trajan replied
in a rescript which
was destined to have the force of law throughout the second century in relation
to Christianity.
After approving what his representative had already done, the emperor directed
that in future the rule to be observed in dealing with Christians should
be the following: no steps were to be taken by magistrates to ascertain who
were or who were not Christians,
but at the same time, if any person was
denounced, and admitted that he was a Christian,
he was to be punished — evidently with death. Anonymous denunciations were not
to be acted upon, and on the other hand, those who repented of being Christians and
offered sacrifice to the gods, were to be pardoned. Thus, from the year 112,
the date of
this document, perhaps even from the reign of Nero,
a Christian was
ipso facto an outlaw. That the followers of Christ were known to the highest
authorities of the State to be innocent of the numerous crimes and misdemeanors
attributed to them by popular calumny,
is evident from Pliny's testimony to this effect, as well as from Trajan's order: conquirendi
non sunt. And that the emperor did not regard Christians as
a menace to the State is apparent from the general tenor of his instructions.
Their only crime was that they were Christians,
adherents of an illegal religion. Under this regime of proscription the Church existed
from the year 112 to the reign of Septimius
Severus (193-211). The position of the faithful was always one of
grave danger, being as they were at the mercy of every malicious person who
might, without a moment's warning, cite them before the nearest tribunal. It
is true indeed,
that the delator was an unpopular person in
the Roman Empire, and, besides, in accusing a Christian he
ran the risk of incurring severe punishment if unable to make good his charge
against his intended victim. In spite of the danger, however, instances are
known, in the persecution era,
of Christian victims
of delation.
The prescriptions
of Trajan on
the subject of Christianity were
modified by Septimius
Severus by the addition of a clause forbidding any person to
become a Christian.
The existing law of Trajan against Christians in
general was not, indeed, repealed by Severus, though for the moment it was
evidently the intention of the emperor that it should remain a dead letter. The
object aimed at by the new enactment was, not to disturb those already Christians,
but to check the growth of the Church by
preventing conversions. Some illustrious convert martyrs, the most famous being
Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas, were added to the roll of champions of religious
freedom by this prohibition, but it effected nothing of consequence in regard
to its primary purpose. The persecution came
to an end in the second year of the reign of Caracalla (211-17).
From this date to the reign of Decius (250-53)
the Christians enjoyed
comparative peace with the exception of the short period when Maximinus the
Thracian (235-38) occupied the throne. The elevation of Decius to
the purple began a new era in the relations between Christianity and
the Roman State. This emperor, though a native of Illyria,
was nevertheless profoundly imbued with the spirit of Roman conservatism. He
ascended the throne with the firm intention of restoring the prestige which the
empire was fast losing, and he seems to have been convinced that the chief
difficulty in the way of effecting his purpose was the existence of Christianity.
The consequence was that in the year 250 he issued an edict, the tenor of which
is known only from the documents relating to its enforcement, prescribing that
all Christians of
the empire should on a certain day offer sacrifice to the gods.
This new law was quite a
different matter from the existing legislation against Christianity.
Proscribed though they were legally, Christians had
hitherto enjoyed comparative security under a regime which clearly laid down
the principle that they were not to be sought after officially by the civil
authorities. The edict of Decius was
exactly the opposite of this: the magistrates were now constituted religious
inquisitors, whose duty it
was to punish Christians who
refused to apostatize.
The emperor's aim, in a word, was to annihilate Christianity by
compelling every Christian in
the empire to renounce his faith.
The first effect of the new legislation seemed favourable to the wishes of its
author. During the long interval of peace since the reign of Septimius
Severus — nearly forty years — a considerable amount of laxity had
crept into the Church's discipline,
one consequence of which was, that on the publication of the edict of persecution,
multitudes of Christians besieged
the magistrates everywhere in their eagerness to comply with its demands. Many
other nominal Christians procured
by bribery certificates stating that they had complied with the law,
while still others apostatized under
torture. Yet after this first throng of weaklings had put themselves outside
the pale of Christianity there
still remained, in every part of the empire, numerous Christians worthy
of their religion, who endured all manner of torture, and death itself, for
their convictions. The persecution lasted
about eighteen months, and wrought incalculable harm.
Before the Church had
time to repair the damage thus caused, a new conflict with the State was
inaugurated by an edict of Valerian published
in 257. This enactment was directed against the clergy — bishops, priests,
and deacons —
who were directed under pain of exile to offer sacrifice. Christians were
also forbidden, under pain of death, to resort to their cemeteries. The results
of this first edict were of so little moment that the following year, 258, a
new edict appeared requiring the clergy to
offer sacrifice under penalty of death. Christian senators, knights,
and even the ladies of their families,
were also affected by an order to offer sacrifice under penalty of confiscation
of their goods and reduction to plebeian rank. And in the event of these severe
measures proving ineffective the law prescribed
further punishment: execution for the men, for the women exile. Christian slaves
and freedmen of the emperor's household also were punished by confiscation of
their possessions and reduction to the lowest ranks of slavery. Among the
martyrs of this persecution were Pope
Sixtus II and St.
Cyprian of Carthage. Of its further effects little is known, for want of
documents, but it seems safe to surmise that, besides adding many new martyrs
to the Church's roll,
it must have caused enormous suffering to the Christian nobility.
The persecution came
to an end with the capture (260) of Valerian by
the Persians;
his successor, Gallienus (260-68),
revoked the edict and restored to the bishops the
cemeteries and meeting places.
From this date to the
last persecution inaugurated
by Diocletian (284-305)
the Church,
save for a short period in the reign of Aurelian (270-75),
remained in the same legal situation as in the second century. The first edict
of Diocletian was promulgated at Nicomedia in
the year 303, and was of the following tenor: Christian assemblies
were forbidden; churches and sacred books were ordered to be destroyed, and
all Christians were
commanded to abjure their
religion forthwith. The penalties for failure to comply with these demands were
degradation and civil death for the higher classes, reduction to slavery for
freemen of the humbler sort, and for slaves incapacity to receive the gift of
freedom. Later in the same year a new edict ordered the imprisonment of ecclesiastics of
all grades, from bishops to exorcists.
A third edict imposed the death-penalty for refusal to abjure,
and granted freedom to those who would offer sacrifice; while a fourth
enactment, published in 304, commanded everybody without exception to offer
sacrifice publicly. This was the last and most determined effort of the Roman
State to destroy Christianity.
It gave to the Church countless
martyrs, and ended in her triumph in the reign of Constantine.
Number of the martyrs
Of the 249 years from the
first persecution under Nero (64)
to the year 313, when Constantine established lasting peace, it is calculated
that the Christians suffered persecution about
129 years and enjoyed a certain degree of toleration about 120 years. Yet it
must be borne in mind that even in the years of comparative tranquillity Christians were
at all times at the mercy of every person ill-disposed
towards them or their religion in the empire. Whether or not delation of Christians occurred
frequently during the era of persecution is
not known, but taking into consideration the irrational hatred of
the pagan population
for Christians,
it may safely be surmised that not a few Christians suffered
martyrdom through betrayal. An example of the kind related by St.
Justin Martyr shows how swift and terrible were the consequences of
delation. A woman who
had been converted to Christianity was
accused by her husband before a magistrate of being a Christian.
Through influence the accused was granted the favour of a brief respite to
settle her worldly affairs, after which she was to appear in court and put
forward her defence. Meanwhile her angry husband caused the arrest of the
catechist, Ptolomæus by name, who had instructed the convert. Ptolomæus, when
questioned, acknowledged that he was a Christian and
was condemned to death.
In the court, at the time this sentence was pronounced, were two persons who
protested against the iniquity of inflicting capital punishment for the mere
fact of professing Christianity.
The magistrate in reply asked if they also were Christians,
and on their answering in the affirmative both were ordered to be executed. As
the same fate awaited the wife of the delator also, unless she recanted, we
have here an example of three, possibly four, persons suffering
capital punishment on the accusation of a man actuated by malice, solely for
the reason that his wife had given up the evil life
she had previously led in his society (St.
Justin Martyr, II, Apol., ii).
As to the actual number
of persons who
died as martyrs during these two centuries and a half we have no definite
information. Tacitus is authority for the statement that an immense multitude (ingens
multitudo) were put
to death by Nero.
The Apocalypse of St. John speaks of "the souls of
them that were slain for the word of God"
in the reign of Domitian,
and Dion Cassius informs us that "many" of the Christian nobility
suffered death for their faith during
the persecution for
which this emperor is responsible. Origen indeed,
writing about the year 249, before the edict of Decius,
states that the number of those put
to death for the Christian
religion was not very great, but he probably means that the number of
martyrs up to this time was small when compared with the entire number of Christians (cf.
Allard, "Ten Lectures on the Martyrs", 128). St.
Justin Martyr, who owed his conversion largely
to the heroic example of Christians suffering
for their faith,
incidentally gives a glimpse of the danger of professing Christianity in
the middle of the second century, in the reign of so good an emperor as Antoninus
Pius (138-61). In his "Dialogue with Trypho" (cx), the apologist,
after alluding to the fortitude of
his brethren in religion, adds, "for it is plain that, though beheaded,
and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other
kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but, the more such things
happen, the more do others in larger numbers become faithful. . . . Every Christian has
been driven out not only from his own property,
but even from the whole world; for you permit no Christian to
live." Tertullian also,
writing towards the end of the second century, frequently alludes to the
terrible conditions under which Christians existed
("Ad martyres", "Apologia", "Ad Nationes", etc.):
death and torture were ever present possibilities.
But the new régime of
special edicts, which began in 250 with the edict of Decius,
was still more fatal to Christians.
The persecutions of Decius and Valerian were
not, indeed, of long duration, but while they lasted, and in spite of the large
number of those who fell away, there are clear indications that they produced
numerous martyrs. Dionysius
of Alexandria, for instance, in a letter to the Bishop of Antioch tells
of a violent persecution that
took place in the Egyptian capital,
through popular violence,
before the edict of Decius was
even published. The Bishop of
Alexandria gives several examples of what Christians endured
at the hands of the pagan rabble
and then adds that "many others, in cities and villages, were torn asunder
by the heathen"
(Eusebius, Church
History VI.41 sq.). Besides those who perished by actual violence,
also, a "multitude wandered in the deserts and
mountains, and perished of hunger and thirst, of cold and sickness and robbers
and wild beasts" (Eusebius,
l. c.). In another letter, speaking of the persecution under Valerian,
Dionysius states that "men and women,
young and old, maidens and matrons, soldiers and civilians, of every age and
race, some by scourging and fire, others by the sword, have conquered in the
strife and won their crowns" (Id., op. cit., VII, xi). At Cirta, in North
Africa, in the same persecution,
after the execution of Christians had
continued for several days, it was resolved to expedite matters. To this end
the rest of those condemned were brought to the bank of a river and made to
kneel in rows. When all was ready the executioner passed along the ranks and
despatched all without further loss of time (Ruinart, p. 231).
But the last persecution was
even more severe than any of the previous attempts to extirpate Christianity.
In Nicomedia "a great multitude" were put
to death with their bishop,
Anthimus; of these some perished by the sword, some by fire, while others were
drowned. In Egypt "thousands
of men, women and
children, despising the present life, . . . endured various deaths" (Eusebius, Church
History VII.4 sqq.), and the same happened in many other places
throughout the East. In the West the persecution came
to an end at an earlier date than in the East, but, while it lasted, numbers of
martyrs, especially at Rome,
were added to the calendar (cf. Allard, op. cit., 138 sq.). But besides those
who actually shed their blood in the first three centuries account must be
taken of the numerous confessors of the Faith who, in prison,
in exile, or in penal servitude suffered a daily martyrdom more difficult to
endure than death itself. Thus, while anything like a numerical estimate of the
number of martyrs is impossible, yet the meagre evidence on the subject that
exists clearly enough establishes the fact that countless men, women and
even children, in that glorious, though terrible, first age of Christianity,
cheerfully sacrificed their goods, their liberties, or their lives, rather than
renounce the faith they
prized above all.
Trial of the martyrs
The first act in the
tragedy of the martyrs was their arrest by an officer of the law.
In some instances the privilege of custodia libera, granted to St.
Paul during his first imprisonment,
was allowed before the accused were brought to trial; St.
Cyprian, for example, was detained in the house of the officer who arrested
him, and treated with consideration until the time set for his examination. But
such procedure was the exception to the rule; the accused Christians were
generally cast into the public prisons,
where often, for weeks or months at a time, they suffered the greatest
hardships. Glimpses of the sufferings they endured in prison are
in rare instances supplied by the Acts of the Martyrs. St. Perpetua, for
instance, was horrified by the awful darkness, the intense heat caused by
overcrowding in the climate of Roman Africa, and the brutality of the soldiers
(Passio SS. Perpet., et Felic., i). Other confessors allude to the various
miseries of prison life
as beyond their powers of description (Passio SS. Montani, Lucii, iv). Deprived
of food, save enough to keep them alive, of water, of light and air; weighted
down with irons, or placed in stocks with their legs drawn as far apart as was
possible without causing a rupture; exposed to all manner of infection from
heat, overcrowding, and the absence of anything like proper sanitary conditions
— these were some of the afflictions that preceded actual martyrdom. Many
naturally, died in prison under
such conditions, while others, unfortunately, unable to endure the strain,
adopted the easy means of escape left open to them, namely, complied with the
condition demanded by the State of offering sacrifice.
Those whose strength,
physical and moral, was capable of enduring to the end were, in addition,
frequently interrogated in court by the magistrates, who endeavoured by
persuasion or torture to induce them to recant. These tortures comprised every
means that human ingenuity in antiquity had devised to break down even the
most courageous;
the obstinate were scourged with whips, with straps, or with ropes; or again
they were stretched on the rack and their bodies torn apart with iron rakes.
Another awful punishment consisted in suspending the victim, sometimes for a
whole day at a time, by one hand; while modest women in
addition were exposed naked to the gaze of those in court. Almost worse than
all this was the penal servitude to which bishops, priests, deacons, laymen and women,
and even children, were condemned in some of the more violent persecutions;
these refined personages of both sexes, victims of merciless laws were
doomed to pass the remainder of their days in the darkness of the mines, where
they dragged out a wretched existence, half naked, hungry, and with no bed save
the damp ground. Those were far more fortunate who were condemned to even the
most disgraceful death, in the arena, or by crucifixion.
Honours paid the martyrs
It is easy to understand
why those who endured so much for their convictions should have been so
greatly venerated by
their co-religionists from even the first days of trial in the reign of Nero.
The Roman officials usually permitted relatives or friends to gather up the
mutilated remains of the martyrs for interment, although in some instances such
permission was refused. These relics the Christians regarded
as "more valuable than gold or precious stones" (Martyr. Polycarpi,
xviii). Some of the more famous martyrs received special honours, as for
instance, in Rome,
St. Peter and St.
Paul, whose "trophies", or tombs,
are spoken of at the beginning of the third century by the Roman priest Caius
(Eusebius, Church
History II.21.7). Numerous crypts and chapels in
the Roman
catacombs, some of which, like the capella grœca, were constructed in
sub-Apostolic times, also bear witness to the early veneration for those
champions of freedom of conscience who
won, by dying, the greatest victory in the history of the human
race. Special commemoration services of the martyrs, at which the holy
Sacrifice was offered over their tombs —
the origin of the time — honoured custom
of consecrating altars by enclosing in them the relics of
martyrs — were held on the anniversaries of their death; the famous Fractio
Panis fresco of the capella grœca, dating from the early second
century, is probably a representation (see s.v. FRACTIO
PANIS; SYMBOLS
OF EUCHARIST) in miniature, of such a celebration. From the age of
Constantine even still greater veneration was accorded the martyrs. Pope
Damasus (366-84) had a special love for
the martyrs, as we learn from the inscriptions, brought to light by de Rossi,
composed by him for their tombs in
the Roman
catacombs. Later on veneration of the martyrs was occasionally exhibited in
a rather undesirable form; many of the frescoes in the catacombs have
been mutilated to gratify the ambition of
the faithful to
be buried near the saints (retro
sanctos), in whose company they hoped one day to rise from the grave. In
the Middle
Ages the esteem in which the martyrs were held was equally great; no
hardships were too severe to be endured in visiting famous shrines, like those
of Rome,
where their relics were
contained.
Sources
ALLARD, Ten Lectures
on the Martyrs (New York, 1907); BIRKS in Dict. of Christ. Antiq. (London,
1875-80), s.v.; HEALY, The Valerian Persecution (Boston, 1905);
LECLERCQ, Les Martyrs, I (Paris, 1906); DUCHESNE, Histoire
ancienne de l'Église, I (Paris, 1906); HEUSER in KRAUS, Realencyklopädie
f. Christlichen Altenthümer (Freiburg, 1882-86), s.v. Märtyrer; BONWETCH
in Realencyklopädie f. prot. Theol. u. Kirche (Leipzig, 1903),
s.v. Märtyrer u. Bekenner, and HARNACK in op. cit., s.v. Christenverfolgungen.
Hassett,
Maurice. "Martyr." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 30 Jun.
2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09736b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09736b.htm
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Basilica
di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Roma
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Basilica
di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Roma
Santi Primi martiri della
santa Chiesa di Roma Martiri
- Memoria
Facoltativa
sec. I, dall'anno 64
La Chiesa celebra oggi
molti cristiani che, come attesta Papa Clemente, furono trucidati nei giardini
vaticani da Nerone dopo l'incendio di Roma (luglio 64). Anche lo storico romano
Tacito nei suoi Annali dice: 'alcuni ricoperti di pelle di belve furono
lasciati sbranare dai cani, altri furono crocifissi, ad altri fu appiccato il
fuoco al termine del giorno in modo che servissero di illuminazione notturna'. (Mess.
Rom.)
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio
Romano: Santi protomartiri della Santa Chiesa di Roma, che accusati
dell’incendio della Città furono per ordine dell’imperatore Nerone crudelmente
uccisi con supplizi diversi: alcuni, infatti, furono esposti ai cani coperti da
pelli di animali e ne vennero dilaniati; altri furono crocifissi e altri ancora
dati al rogo, perché, venuta meno la luce del giorno, servissero da lampade
notturne. Tutti questi erano discepoli degli Apostoli e primizie dei martiri
che la Chiesa di Roma presentò al Signore.
L'odierna celebrazione
introdotta dal nuovo calendario romano universale si riferisce ai protomartiri
della Chiesa di Roma, vittime della persecuzione di Nerone in seguito
all'incendio di Roma, avvenuto il 19 luglio del 64. Perché Nerone perseguitò i
cristiani? Ce lo dice Cornelio Tacito nel XV libro degli Annales: "Siccome
circolavano voci che l'incendio di Roma fosse stato doloso, Nerone presentò
come colpevoli, punendoli con pene ricercatissime, coloro che, odiati per le
loro abominazioni, erano chiamati dal volgo cristiani".
Ai tempi di Nerone, a
Roma, accanto alla comunità ebraica, viveva quella esigua e pacifica dei
cristiani. Su questi, poco conosciuti, circolavano voci calunniose. Nerone
scaricò su di loro, condannandoli ad efferati supplizi, le accuse a lui
rivolte. Del resto le idee professate dai cristiani erano di aperta sfida agli
dei pagani gelosi e vendicativi... "I pagani - ricorderà più tardi
Tertulliano - attribuiscono ai cristiani ogni pubblica calamità, ogni flagello.
Se le acque del Tevere escono dagli argini e invadono la città, se al contrario
il Nilo non rigonfia e non inonda i campi, se vi è siccità, carestia, peste,
terremoto, è tutta colpa dei cristiani, che disprezzano gli dei, e da tutte le
parti si grida: i cristiani ai leoni!".
Nerone ebbe la
responsabilità di aver dato il via all'assurda ostilità del popolo romano,
peraltro molto tollerante in materia religiosa, nei confronti dei cristiani: la
ferocia con la quale colpì i presunti incendiari non trova neppure la
giustificazione del supremo interesse dell'impero. Episodi orrendi come quello
delle fiaccole umane, cosparse di pece e fatte ardere nei giardini del colle
Oppio, o come quello di donne e bambini vestiti con pelle di animali e lasciati
in balia delle bestie feroci nel circo, furono tali da destare un senso di
pietà e di orrore nello stesso popolo romano. "Allora - scrive ancora
Tacito - si manifestò un sentimento di pietà, pur trattandosi di gente
meritevole dei più esemplari castighi, perché si vedeva che erano eliminati non
per il bene pubblico, ma per soddisfare la crudeltà di un individuo",
Nerone. La persecuzione non si arrestò a quella fatale estate del 64, ma si
prolungò fino al 67.
Tra i martiri più
illustri vi furono il principe degli apostoli, crocifisso nel circo neroniano,
dove sorge la basilica di S. Pietro, e l'apostolo dei gentili, S. Paolo,
decapitato alle Acque Salvie e sepolto lungo la via Ostiense. Dopo la festività
congiunta dei due apostoli, il nuovo calendario vuole appunto celebrare la
memoria dei numerosi martiri che non poterono avere un posto peculiare nella
liturgia.
Autore: Piero
Bargellini
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/28000
.jpg)
Santi Primi martiri
della santa Chiesa di Roma
Chiesa
Santa Maria dei Martiri, Sancta Maria ad Martyres, Roma
Martyrene under keiser
Nero ( -64)
Minnedag:
24. juni
Under keiser Nero fikk
Roma sine første martyrer. De ble drept på forskjellig grusomt vis av keiser
Nero, som beskyldte dem for å ha satt fyr på byen. At det var Nero selv som
stod bak bybrannen, er faktisk ikke så sikkert. Men at det ikke var disse kristne
martyrer, var kjent også dengang. Minnedag 24. juni.
Sist oppdatert: 1998-01-17 21:29
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/mnero
Voir aussi : https://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/SaintsMartyrs/vol_1.htm#_Toc90633597
