The 33 Martyrs of Melitene
Feast 11-07
Patron of
About
The 33 Martyrs of Melitene were early Christians who suffered during the persecution ordered by the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian around the year 290. Large military detachments under the commander Lysias were sent to Cappadocia to suppress the growing Christian faith and to conscript recruits for the imperial army.
These thirty-three believers refused to renounce Christ and were put to death for their fidelity, joining the countless witnesses of the early Church who chose death rather than abandon the Gospel. Their memory was preserved in the ancient martyrologies of the Christian East.
They are honored as a collective witness to the courage of ordinary Christians who faced the full power of the Roman state and remained steadfast in faith.
Suggested prayer
O God, who gave the thirty-three martyrs of Melitene courage to face death rather than deny Your name, grant through their intercession that all who suffer for righteousness may stand firm in faith. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
