The ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat were, according to a medieval legend, Roman soldiers who, led by Saint Acacius, converted to Christianity and were crucified on Mount Ararat in Armenia by order of the Roman emperor. The story is attributed to the ninth century scholar Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
In the Roman Catholic Church the martyrs are commemorated on March 18 and June 22, according to entries in the Roman Martyrology.
In the Greek Orthodox Church the Great Synaxaristes has a reference on June 1 for the "The Holy Ten Thousand Martyrs" in Antiochia, under the Roman Emperor Decius.
Despite its questionable veracity, the event was extremely popular in Renaissance art, as seen for example in the painting 10,000 martyrs of Mount Ararat by the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio, or in the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by the German artist Albrecht Dürer.
Famous quotes containing the words ten thousand, ten, thousand and/or martyrs:
“They was givin’ me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I’m hot to trot. Next woman takes me on gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars.”
—Laurence Hauben, U.S. screenwriter, Bo Goldman, and Milos Forman. Randall McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)
“Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc únselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“A letter from home is worth ten thousand ounces of gold.”
—Chinese proverb.
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)