Thirty-three Martyrs of Heraclea
The Holy Thirty-three Martyrs of Heraclea, perfected by fire
Martyr
Commemorated 28 August — Martyrdom by fire
A company of thirty-three martyrs from Heraclea whom the Greek synaxaria enter under August 28 with the bare statement that they were perfected by fire. No names, no persecutor, no date and no passion have survived; even the identity of the Heraclea in question is not stated, though the Thracian city on the Sea of Marmara — ancient Perinthus, the metropolis of the province and a place of frequent martyrdom — is the most likely. They are one of several anonymous companies which the Byzantine calendar preserves by number alone, and are easily and often confused with the like-numbered Thirty-three Martyrs of Palestine kept on August 16.
The notice
The synaxarion gives a single sentence: the holy thirty-three martyrs from Heraclea were martyred by fire. The compilers prefixed the customary couplet on the manner of the death, and added nothing further; nothing further was known to them. The company is anonymous in the strict sense — the tradition never transmitted a roll of names, unlike many collective commemorations where at least the leaders are remembered.
Heraclea
Several cities of the East bore the name. The strongest candidate is Heraclea in Thrace, the ancient Perinthus on the Propontis, seat of the metropolitan of Europa and the see from which the bishops of Byzantium were once consecrated; it was a considerable Christian centre and produced martyrs in numbers under Diocletian. Heraclea Pontica on the Black Sea and Heraclea in Caria are also possible. The synaxarion does not say, and this entry does not choose.
Some calendars — the OrthodoxWiki listing for the day among them — give the company as the thirty-three martyrs of Nicomedia. The Greek books read Heraclea, and the reading followed here is theirs; the Nicomedian form is most likely a copyist's substitution of the great persecuting city of Bithynia for the less familiar name.
Death by fire
Mass burning was the standard method of dealing with a group of confessors too numerous for individual execution, and the notices of such companies — the twenty thousand of Nicomedia, the martyrs burnt in their churches across the Eastern provinces — belong overwhelmingly to the persecution of Diocletian and Galerius (303–311). A date in that persecution is therefore probable for these thirty-three; it is not, however, transmitted, and is not asserted here.
Not to be confused with
- The Thirty-three Martyrs of Palestine, perfected by the sword and commemorated on August 16. The identical number and the twelve days' distance make this the standing confusion in the calendars, and some books have collapsed the two.
- The various companies of Nicomedian martyrs, including the 3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia.
Feast and commemoration
August 28 (church date; New Calendar civil August 28; Old Calendar civil September 10), listed in the Greek synaxaria and calendars for the day and carried into the Slavic books; no separate office is appointed, and the company is commemorated at the synaxarion reading. The day belongs liturgically to Moses the Ethiopian and stands on the eve of the strict fast of the Beheading of the Forerunner.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from thee our God; for possessing thy strength they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Anonymous companies are painted in the settled type of the collective martyrdom: the whole band ranged in ranks behind three or four figures drawn in full, all in tunic and cloak, each holding a cross, with the number written across the inscription — ΟΙ ΑΓΙΟΙ ΛΓ΄ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΕΣ. Where the manner of death is illustrated, as in the menologion miniatures, the company stands or kneels within a great fire while the executioners feed it, hands raised in prayer and faces unhurt — the convention by which Byzantine painting distinguishes the martyr in the flames from the mere victim of them.
No pre-1900 icon of this company has been located; the day is not covered by the Menologion of Basil II in a form identifiable to these martyrs.