Today the Church remembers the First Martyrs of the Church in Rome.
Orate pro nobis.
These women, men, and children, whose names and numbers are known only to God, save for two, were Christians martyred in the city of Rome during Nero's persecution in 64 AD . The event is recorded by both Tacitus and Pope Clement I, among others.
Rome had long had a large Jewish population, mostly traders and their families. The Jewish couple Priscilla and Aquila, who were tent makers from Pontus, had lived in Rome until the emperor Claudius ordered all the Jews to leave the city, where Paul later met them in Corinth. Suetonius mentions the expulsion of the Jews was due to disturbances in the city within the Jewish community as disputes were being raised between those Jews who were disciples of Jesus and those who were not, the dispute noted by Suetonius as being about a Jew named "Chrestus", possibly a reference to Christ.
We must remember that at this time the community of the disciples of Jesus were almost entirely Jewish. It would be nearly a century before it became a majority Gentile phenomenon. The reasons for this are complex and I would need to write about it in its own post. The disciples called themselves followers of The Way, indicating that they were following the teachings of Jesus and were actively calling upon other Jews to follow the Way of Jesus in order to prepare for the coming Day of Judgement, which they expected to happen at any moment. The disciples of Jesus were not called "christians" outside of the Jewish community of Antioch yet. Other than the Acts of the Apostles, the use of the term "christian" to describe the disciples of Jesus is not seen in written form until a letter of Ignatius, c. 100 AD. Claudius died in 54 AD, and the Jewish population was allowed to return.
There were early Christians in Rome within a dozen or so years after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts of Peter or Paul. It is probable that Jews coming from Israel to Rome had included a number of disciples of Jesus, and it was they who first preached the Gospel of Jesus within the Jewish community. Paul had not yet visited Rome at the time he wrote his Epistle to the Romans in 57-58 AD. When he did write his epistle, he wrote to a community of disciplines of Jesus who by then included both Jews and Gentiles.
In July of 64 AD, Rome was devastated by fire. Largely made up of wooden tenements, fire was a frequent occurrence in the city. Rumor blamed the tragedy on the unpopular emperor Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. He was known to be extravagant, impulsive, tyrannical, violent, and a madman. He murdered his first wife and even his own mother. Wanting to deflect blame for himself, and distract the people from the gargantuan tax burden his new pleasure palace was going to cost them, he accused the the disciples of Jesus. According to the historian Tacitus, many Christians were put to death "not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind." The crime of "hatred against mankind" was a euphemism for being antisocial, that is to say, you were actively working against the Roman state, aka sedition. This was the charge that led to the crucifixion of Jesus, as the Roman government could think of few greater crimes than to reject its divine authority.
Rounding up the disciples, some of them were sewn into the bellies of animals while still alive and then fed to wild dogs to be torn to pieces. Others perished by crucifixion, and others were covered in pitch and suspended from lampposts to serve as a nightly illumination, including famously at a banquet held by Nero as proof of the guilt of the disciples for the burning of Rome and his swift justice for the criminals responsible. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer, standing proud as a victorious general in a war against the enemies of Rome. Perhaps not surprisingly, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion amongst the Roman population for the horrors inflicted upon so many, children included. It became obvious that it was not, as it had been declared to be, for the public good, but to glut one man's psychotic cruelty, that they were being destroyed.
Peter and Paul were probably among the victims, as they are both traditionally believed to have been executed by Nero in this time frame.
Threatened by an army revolt and condemned to death by the senate, Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D., at the age of 31.
Today’s feast is strategically placed just one day after the Church honors Saints Peter and Paul, the two most notable martyrs during this Neronian persecution. By celebrating Saints Peter and Paul first, followed by a feast for every other martyr who died alongside them, the Church invites us to place ourselves not only in the shadow of Saints Peter and Paul, but also to join with these many unknown Christians who shed their blood for the Faith. Christians are the most persecuted people on the planet today. 359 million live in conditions if high hazard, 312 in conditions of extreme hazard. Every day, 15 Christian’s are martyred for their faith in Jesus, primarily in Muslim countries but also in Socialist/Communist regimes. For most of us, we will not likely face such danger, but the depth of resolve each Christian must have is the same. Every Christian, of every time and circumstance, must be so completely devoted to Christ that nothing, not even martyrdom, must deter us from our hope in the Risen Jesus or from our calling to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded us. And we can trust in his promise, that "surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age".
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyrs of Rome triumphed over suffering and were faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember them in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
