The Scillitan Martyrs were a company of twelve North African Christians who were executed for their beliefs on 17 July 180 AD. The martyrs take their name from Scilla (or Scillium), a town in

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

. The ''

Acts The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...

of the Scillitan Martyrs'' are considered to be the earliest documents of the church of Africa and also the earliest specimen of Christian

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. It was the last of the persecutions during the reign of

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...

, which is best known from the sufferings of the churches of Vienne and

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in South

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

. Marcus Aurelius died on 17 March of the year in question, and persecution ceased sometime after the accession of his son

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

. A group of sufferers called the Madaurian martyrs seems to belong to the same period; in the correspondence of

St Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

, Namphamo, one of their number, is spoken of as an "archimartyr," which appears to mean a

protomartyr A protomartyr (Koine Greek, ''prôtos'' 'first' + ''mártus'' 'martyr') is the first Christian martyr in a country or among a particular group, such as a religious order. Similarly, the phrase the Protomartyr (with no other qualification of ...

of Africa.

The account

The Acts of their martyrdom are of interest, as being among the most ancient Acts extant for the Roman Province of Africa.Hassett, Maurice. "Martyrs of Scillium." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 March 2021 The martyrs' trial and execution took place in

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

under the

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

Publius Vigellius Saturninus, whom

Tertullian Tertullian (; ; 155 – 220 AD) was a prolific Early Christianity, early Christian author from Roman Carthage, Carthage in the Africa (Roman province), Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive co ...

declares to have been the first persecutor of Christians in Africa. The trial is notable among the trials of early martyrs inasmuch as the accused were not subjected to torture. The Scillitan sufferers were twelve in all—seven men and five women. Their names were Speratus, Nartzalus, Cintinus (Cittinus), Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata, and Secunda. Two of these bear

Punic The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' ...

names (Nartzalus, Cintinus), but the rest are Latin names. Six had already been tried: of the remainder, to whom these ''Acta'' primarily relate, Speratus was the principal spokesman. He claimed for himself and his companions that they had lived a quiet and moral life, paying their dues and doing no wrong to their neighbors. But when called upon to swear by the name of the emperor, he replied "I recognize not the empire of this world; but rather do I serve that God whom no man hath seen, nor with these eyes can see." The response was a reference to the language of 1 Tim. vi. 16. In reply to the question, "What are the things in your satchel?", he said "Books and letters of Paul, a just man." The fame of the martyrs led to the building of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

in their honor at

and their annual commemoration required that the brevity and obscurity of their ''Acta'' should be supplemented and explained to make them suitable for public recitation.

Veneration

Agobard Agobard of Lyon (–840) was a Spain, Spanish-born priest and archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the Byzantine Iconoclasm, iconoclast controversy to Spanish Ado ...

archbishop of Lyons The Archdiocese of Lyon (; ), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The archbishops of Lyon are also called primates of Gaul. The oldest diocese in Fran ...

(c. 779–840) stated that the relics of Speratus, and those of Cyprian, were

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

by Charlemagne's orders from Carthage to Lyons. The historical questions connected with these martyrs were addressed by bishop

Joseph Barber Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an England, English theology, theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an ...

in ''Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp'', 1885.An English translation with bibliography can be found in

Notes

References

* *

External links

*

at Early Christian Writings

Videography

*''Lost Legacy Reclaimed, Season 1: Episode 1. The Scillitan Martyrs'' (2019) documentary. {{DEFAULTSORT:Scillitan Martyrs Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era Numidian saints Date of birth unknown 180 deaths 2nd-century Christian martyrs Christian anarchism