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Quadratus of Nicomedia and Companions

The Holy Martyrs Quadratus, Saturninus and Rufinus of Nicomedia

Martyr · d. c. 250–259, in Bithynia

Commemorated 10 March — Martyrdom in Bithynia

Quadratus of Nicomedia (third century) was a Christian of an illustrious and wealthy family of Bithynia who, during the persecutions under the emperors Decius and Valerian, used his freedom and his means to sustain the confessors in prison — bringing them food and comfort and encouraging them to stand firm. When his own faith was discovered he confessed Christ openly, and was carried by his persecutors through a succession of the cities of Asia Minor to be displayed and tortured, that his sufferings might frighten others from the faith; but he endured all and, with his companions Saturninus and Rufinus and others, was at the last beheaded. The Church keeps them on March 10, the same day as the martyrs of Corinth of the same name, from whom they are to be distinguished.

The martyr Quadratus (Greek Kodratos) commemorated at Nicomedia is remembered as a man of an illustrious family and considerable wealth, which he did not hoard but spent generously. His story belongs to the mid-third-century persecutions — the tradition names the reigns of Decius (249–251) and Valerian (253–259) together — when many Christians of Bithynia were seized and thrown into prison. Quadratus, still at liberty, made it his work to serve the imprisoned confessors: he came to them secretly, brought them what they needed, tended their wounds, and above all strengthened their resolve to persevere to the end. When at length his own profession of Christ was discovered, he did not deny it but confessed openly, and so joined the number of the accused.

The persecutors, the account holds, sought to make of him a public warning: rather than putting him to death at once, they led him from city to city through the province — the synaxarion tradition names a circuit through Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea and the other towns of the region — displaying him and subjecting him to fresh tortures in each place, that the sight of his sufferings might terrify the faithful into apostasy. But the endurance of Quadratus had the contrary effect, confirming rather than breaking the courage of those who saw him. When neither torment nor humiliation moved him, he was beheaded, and with him suffered his companions Saturninus (Satyrinus) and Rufinus and others whose names the tradition transmits less certainly. Their martyrdom is placed about the middle of the third century, and their memory kept on March 10.

Feast and commemoration

Quadratus of Nicomedia and his companions are kept on March 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 23), the same day on which the Church commemorates Quadratus of Corinth and his companions — a wholly separate company of the same name. The two groups are distinguished by place (Bithynia and Corinth), by story (the wealthy visitor of prisoners; the wilderness-born physician), and by their companions; the coincidence of name and day has caused some confusion in the witnesses, which the calendars resolve by keeping both. Because the church date falls, in most years, within Great Lent, no proper Epistle and Gospel are appointed. The commemoration is chiefly kept in the Slavic (Old-Calendar) menaia and is noticed in the Greek synaxarion.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee our God crowns of incorruption; for armed with Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke the powerless insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Quadratus of Nicomedia is depicted, like the martyrs generally, as a young man in tunic and cloak bearing the cross of confession; his distinctive narrative image, where it appears in the menologion cycles, is his being led bound from city to city and tortured before the people, or his beheading with Saturninus and Rufinus. No pre-modern image identified specifically as this Quadratus (as against his Corinthian namesake of the same day) has been found suitable for storage; the entry carries a written description in place of a stored icon.

Disputed questions

  • Distinct from Quadratus of Corinth. The two martyrs named Quadratus kept on March 10 are separate saints with separate companies: this one a wealthy Bithynian who served the imprisoned and was dragged through the cities of Asia Minor; the other a physician of Corinth, born in the wilderness, martyred under the governor Jason. Some late witnesses blur details of the two; the reference keeps them apart, following the calendars.
  • Also distinct from Quadratus of Athens — the Apostle of the Seventy and apologist (kept September 21), a wholly different saint of the apostolic age.
  • The roll of companions. Beyond Saturninus and Rufinus, the transmitted lists of those who suffered with Quadratus of Nicomedia vary, and the same names recur in neighbouring commemorations of the Bithynian persecutions; the two firmly attached companions are named here, the wider roll left as the tradition gives it.

Sources

  1. Slavic (Old-Calendar) menaia and the Lives of the Saints of Demetrius of Rostov, March 10 — the illustrious and wealthy family, the ministry to the imprisoned confessors, the circuit of cities and the tortures, and the beheading with Saturninus and Rufinus (cross-checked via azbyka.ru for the civil date March 23).
  2. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, March 10 (consulted live) — "Martyr Quadratus and those with him at Nicomedia": the wealthy family, the sufferings under Decius and Valerian, and the companions.
  3. Synaxarion of Constantinople and the Greek Menaion, March 10 — the notice of the martyrs of the day (consulted via glt.goarch.org), where the Nicomedian company is kept alongside the martyrs of Corinth.