The Seven Holy Maccabean Martyrs: Abim, Antoninus, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, Their Mother Solomonia and Their Teacher Eleazar (+166 before the Nativity of Christ)
The seven Maccabean martyrs, Abim, Antoninus, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar suffered in the year 166 before the Nativity of Christ, when Judea had been conquered by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes. The lawless autocrat resolved to implant paganism among the Jews: he forbade their divine worship and burned the holy books; he plundered the temple in Jerusalem and had an idol of Jupiter set up in it; he forced the Lord’s chosen people to offer sacrifice to the Hellenic gods and to eat food offered to idols… In that evil hour many denied the true God, but there were also those who grieved over the fall and degeneration of their countrymen and still lived in hope of the Saviour’s coming incarnation.
The whole household of the Maccabees stayed firmly faithful to the Law of Moses: they refused the food offered to idols, for which all seven of Saint Solomonia’s sons were put to death by torture one after another before her eyes. The brothers met death with joy; they feared only that the tormentors might stop the torture and one of them might be left without a martyr’s crown. Solomonia too, brave, valiant and God-loving, endured unbearable pain: she was troubled less by her sons’ torments than by the thought that they might not endure them; she grieved less for those who had departed this world than she longed for those still living to join them; she encouraged her sons and urged them to be steadfast. While Saint Solomonia gathered up the hacked body of one son, she was handing over the next to the executioner and preparing a third for torture… When only the last, the youngest son was left alive, Antiochus proposed to Saint Solomonia that she persuade the young man to deny God, so that at least he might be spared; but the handmaid of the Lord strengthened the youth and begged him: fear not the executioner, be worthy of thy brothers. After the death of her seventh son Solomonia herself commended her soul to the Lord in fervent prayer.
The Maccabees’ teacher, Eleazar, a ninety-year-old scribe, died before them in Jerusalem. The lawless tried to force the blessed one to eat meat offered to idols, but he spat out the forbidden food. His relatives and friends suggested that he eat meat prepared with his own hands and only pretend to be taking the food offered to idols; but Eleazar refused: I will not deceive my old age, nor lead the young astray.
The labours of the Maccabean brothers inspired the valiant warrior Judas Maccabeus to heroism. He placed himself at the head of a popular uprising against Antiochus Epiphanes; with God’s help he won the victory, cleansed Jerusalem of idols and put an end to the rule of the pagans. A terrible punishment fell upon the lawless Antiochus: as he was preparing to take revenge on the Jews, his whole body was covered with foul-smelling sores; tormented by unbearable pain and a vile stench, he acknowledged the almighty power of the true God, fervently begged Him for help, and promised to adorn the temple in Jerusalem, to accept the Jewish law and to spread it throughout his domains; but the King of heaven did not accept a prayer made without repentance and founded on superstition, and the wrathful ruler of Syria gave up his spirit in a foreign land and in terrible torment.
Our knowledge of the martyrdom of the Maccabean brothers, their mother and their teacher comes from the Second Book of Maccabees. Great fathers of the Church dedicated words of praise to the blessed martyrs: Cyprian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom.
