Martyr
Martyrs 42 Martyrs of Amorium
† 845
Also known as: Амморейские мчч., Аморийские мученики
Commanders and soldiers, defenders of the Byzantine city of Amorium, taken captive by the Arabs and executed in Samarra for refusing to accept Islam.
During the war of Byzantine Emperor Theophilus (829–842) against the Arab Saracens, due to the betrayal of the military commander Vaditses, the city of Amorium (Phrygia) fell, and forty-two of its defenders — commanders and soldiers led by Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Theodore, Melissenus, Callistus, Vassoes, and others — were taken captive and sent to Syria. For seven years they were held in captivity, repeatedly offered acceptance of Islam in exchange for freedom and honors, but the saints firmly refused to renounce Christ. All forty-two martyrs were beheaded on the bank of the Tigris River in the city of Samarra on 6 March 845.
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