The Forty-Five Martyrs of Nicopolis

The forty-five martyrs of Nicopolis in Armenia were a company of Christians — soldiers, magistrates, ordinary householders — who in the year 319 came together publicly during the persecution of Licinius and presented themselves before the prefect Lysias to confess Christ in protest of the imperial edict requiring sacrifice. The synaxarion records that their leaders were Leontius, Maurikios, Daniel, and Anthony, who had been called by a vision the night before to make this corporate witness.

Lysias, taken aback at the public character of the demonstration, ordered the forty-five seized and held in prison while he applied himself to breaking them. They were beaten, the bones of their hands and feet were broken, they were left for days without food in the heat of the summer — and at last, when none of them would yield, they were taken to the place of execution and burned together at the stake on the same day. Their relics were gathered by the Christians of the city and placed in a common shrine, which the synaxarion records was the site of many miracles.

Their feast is kept together on July 10.