Sunday, October 30, 2016

The Four Crowned Martyrs

Their feast day falls on the first of November and, so, is always eclipsed by All Saints Day.  So let's give them a breakout.  They were four Persian stonemasons:  Claudius, Nicostratis, Simpronian, and Castorius.  They worked for the Emperor Diocletian, a scattered unstable Caesar with a passion for building and a passion against Christians.   He was the last dictator to persecute our Faith before it became officially tolerated in the Roman Empire.  The four worked at the quarries and workshops of Sirmium, now Sremska, Serbia.

The Emperor ordered a statue of Aesclepius, the god of medicine, for the temple he had built for the deity at the Baths of Trajan.  Being Christians, the four refused and were arrested.  While their fates were being contemplated, the chief investigator of their case, Lampadius, died suddenly.  Suspecting foul play had been arranged, the Emperor ordered the four drowned, and they were.

Later they were honoured with a basilica on Celian Hill in Rome, hence their official nickname, the Four Crowned Martyrs.

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