DEC 28: COMMEMORATION OF THE 20,000 MARTYRS of NICOMEDIA

   On December 28th we commemorate the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia, because in the year 302 A.D. the Emperor Maximian Hercules was in the town of Nicomedia. When he realized the enormous number of Christians in that town, he devised a means to convert them all to idol worship or murder them all at one time. His troops surrounded the church and a group was sent in just after midnight when the service of the Nativity of Christ had begun. He demanded that they sacrifice to idols or die. A deacon inspired the congregation not to deny Christ but to remember the three holy children in the flames in Babylon and Christ’s sacrifice on the altar. The clergy baptized and chrismated the catechumens. The church was set ablaze and burned for five days. The smoke from the flames was fragrant, a holy light surrounded the church, and the 20,000 children and parents died.