3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia
The Holy 3,628 Martyrs who suffered at Nicomedia
Martyr · d. early 4th century
Commemorated 2 September
The 3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia were Christians of Alexandria — men together with their wives and children — who, according to the account transmitted in the menologia, came to faith through the witness and martyrdom of Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria, in the last great persecution, and travelled to Nicomedia, the imperial residence, to confess Christ openly before the persecutors; the whole company was put to the sword. They are commemorated together on September 2.
The surviving record of this company is a short menology notice. It relates that these were Alexandrians who came to believe in Christ in connection with the witness of Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria (commemorated November 25), whose martyrdom crowned the last great persecution in Egypt. Rather than await arrest, they took their wives and children and went to Nicomedia in Bithynia, the eastern imperial residence and a city already soaked in martyrs' blood, and there presented themselves before the authorities as Christians. The enraged emperor ordered the entire company — counted in the tradition at 3,628 souls, whole families together — cut down by the sword. No individual names are transmitted with the notice.
Feast and commemoration
September 2 (church date; Old Calendar civil September 15), commemorated with the great-martyr Mamas and John the Faster. The company has no proper service; the common of martyrs is used where their memory is celebrated liturgically. On the differing witness of the Greek and Slavic calendar books, see Disputed questions above.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No pre-modern image of this company has been identified; the Menologion of Basil II contains miniatures of other Nicomedian companies (the 20,000 of December 28 and the 1,003 of February 7), which are not used here lest a different commemoration be misattributed. The company would be depicted as the synaxaria describe them: a multitude of men, women and children bearing the martyrs' crosses, falling beneath the sword before the walls of Nicomedia.
Disputed questions
- Chronology. The menologia set the martyrdom "under Diocletian and Maximian," i.e. in the great persecution begun in 303; but Peter of Alexandria was martyred in 311, under Maximinus Daia. The transmitted account thus cannot be exact in both details: either the company's conversion is connected with Peter's episcopate and confession rather than his death, or their martyrdom belongs to the persecution's final phase (311–313) rather than to Diocletian's own reign. The notice is recorded here as transmitted, with the tension noted.
- The calendar witness. The commemoration by this number is carried in the Slavic menologia (whence the OCA calendar, which lists the company on September 2); the abbreviated synaxarion notice printed in the Greek service Menaion for the day does not include it. The received Greek synaxarion for September 2 does, however, list ten martyrs by name — Diomedes, Julian, Philip, Eutychian, Hesychius, Leonides, Eutychius, Philadelphus, Melanippus, and the woman Parthagape — each with a distinct manner of death (the sword, fire, the gibbet, the cross, drowning, and more), and the older Roman Martyrology for September 2 places a company of the same names at Nicomedia. Whether these named martyrs are leaders or members of the Nicomedian company, or an originally distinct commemoration drawn to the same day, cannot be settled from the notices; the names are therefore given here as transmitted, not asserted as a roll of this company, and they remain listed separately in the calendar file pending their own treatment.
- Not to be confused with the other companies of Nicomedian martyrs kept on their own days: the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia burned in their church on December 28, and the 1,003 Martyrs of Nicomedia of February 7 — distinct companies of the one city, kept on distinct days.