Martyrs Martyrs Peleus and Nilus, Bishops of Egypt, and those with them, 150 in number

During the reign of Emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), during one of the most severe persecutions of Christians, the ruler of Palestine, Firmilian, took captive a large group of Christians numbering, according to various sources, from 150 to 156 people — predominantly Egyptians, along with Palestinians. Among those who suffered, two Egyptian bishops were known by name — Hieromartyrs Peleus and Nilus, the presbyter Zeno, and the martyrs Patermuthius and Elias. The captured Christians were subjected to the cruelest torture: their eyes were gouged out, the tendons of their legs cut, after which a hundred of the prisoners were beheaded and the rest given to burning. In most Byzantine synaxaria this group of martyrs is commemorated on September 19/October 2 together with the Hieromartyrs Peleus, Nilus, and the martyrs Patermuthius and Elias. For the overwhelming majority of this synaxis of martyrs (with the exception of a few known by name), separate extensive vitae have not survived, and they are venerated by the Church collectively, as part of the general synaxis. Given the absence of individual information, the card is presented as an honest record of a collective synaxis, without inventing missing biographical details.