The 3628 Martyrs in Nicomedia

Commemorated on September 2

The 3628 Martyrs in Nicomedia suffered under the co-emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (284-305). These were Christians who had come from Alexandria. They had come to believe in Christ following the killing of Saint Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria (Comm. 25 November). Having taken with them their wives and children, they arrived in Nicomedia and voluntarily gave themselves over for martyrdom, exclaiming: "We are Christians". Diocletian at first attempted to plead with them to renounce Christ, but seeing their firmness, he ordered them all to be beheaded, and their bodies to be thrown into a fiery pit. Many years later the relics of the holy martyrs were discovered through various manifestations of grace.