20,000 MARTYRS OF NICOMEDIA

Commemoration Day of the Twenty Thousand Holy Martyrs of Nicomedia is easy to remember, because in Orthodox Churches that follow the Julian calendar, it falls on January 10. The tenth of January, the day of remembrance of the twenty thousand martyrs, is so easy and very important to remember. It is easy thanks to the combination of numbers, and important because God gives grace for remembering the saints’ days.

1 In the Orthodox calendar, there is a special rank of saints known as the Nicomedia Martyrs. These include Saint Panteleimon, Saint George, one thousand and three martyrs, and many others. Among these saints in the Early Church, the menologion particularly highlights the twenty thousand Christians which were simultaneously closed and burned by pagans. The collective memory of the early Church insisted that the twenty thousand were not just a symbolic number, but a real, truly great multitude of martyrs. “Blessed is the earth that received your blood, passion-bearers of the Lord, and holy are the places that received your relics. You have defeated the enemy in spiritual struggle, and you preached Christ with boldness. Since He is good, we pray that you beseech Him to save our souls,” says the troparion to the saints.

2 The troparion refers to martyrs as passion-bearers. Although this may sound like tautology in Slavic languages, the original meanings of the terms, “martyr” and “passion-bearer”, are different. Martyrdom is testimony, while a “passion-bearer” is one who suffers innocently. Not all passion-bearers suffered specifically for their faith, and therefore not all of them are martyrs. Not every martyr suffered, at least physically. The Church knows of the so-called “bloodless martyrs” who were not killed for their faith but died from the most difficult experiences they suffered during persecution. Such is the case, for example, of Saint Natalia, who died after the martyrdom of her husband Adrian. Both also belong to the Nicomedia martyrs. Due to the special history of their veneration in popular piety as patrons of Christian marriages, their memory is celebrated separately by the Church in September. Later, the Russian Orthodox tradition divided martyrs and passion-bearers into two separate ranks of holiness, and this, of course, is a very instructive topic for theological consideration.

3 The memory of the Twenty Thousand Martyrs of Nicomedia is celebrated on January 10, the third day after Christmas. This date was not chosen arbitrarily. In the Orthodox calendar, immediately after Christmas, the Synaxis of the Theotokos is celebrated, followed by the commemoration of the first martyr Stephen, and immediately after these key commemorations, the collective remembrance of the martyrs in Nicomedia takes place. In Scripture, Tradition, and the Symbol of Faith, the third day is an extraordinary time: first, the “third day” is the moment when the dead are finally and irrevocably dead (cf. John 11:39); second, the third day is the time when all human hope is dead and then God begins to act (Jonah 2:1); finally, God’s intervention on the third day is omnipotent. It will inevitably achieve its goal, will be accomplished without fail, and will destroy the devil, death, and hell (Revelation 20:7). Therefore, celebration of the memory of the martyrs on the third day after Christmas is very significant. The early Christians called the days of the martyrs’ suffering “birthdays.” It turns out that on the third day after the Nativity of Christ, by the power of the Grace of the Resurrection, 20,000 Nicomedia Saints were born for the Heavenly Jerusalem. They became newborn in Christ, who, according to St. Paul, “died for us and rose again” (1 Corinthians 5:15). They were born in Him, they live in the memory of the Church forever and are solemnly commemorated during the days of the Nativity of Jesus.

4 Tradition insists that Christians were burned and suffocated by smoke after being locked in a church by pagans. Today, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, can accommodate about five thousand worshippers. How, then, could an ancient pagan city, no matter how large, have gathered twenty thousand people? The fact is that Christians used to pray in public places. Such public places were mainly basilicas, buildings erected by the authorities for trade and public events. The Christians of Nicomedia could well have gathered there for spontaneous worship of the One God and thus been taken by surprise by the pagans. The Great Persecution was undoubtedly the most brutal and bloody event in the early history of Christianity, and the bloodshed in Nicomedia was one of the most tragic episodes in this persecution. The memory of this apotheosis of martyrdom was extremely dear to the ancient Churches.