Maccabees - Holy Maccabean Martyrs

Holy Maccabean Martyrs

Seven Jewish brothers, their mother and their teacher are known in Christianity as the Holy Maccabean Martyrs or Holy Maccabees, although they are not said to be of the Maccabee family. They are so named from the description of their martyrdom in 2 and 4 Maccabees.

According to one tradition, their individual names are Habim, Antonin, Guriah, Eleazar, Eusebon, Hadim (Halim), Marcellus, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar.

The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the Holy Maccabean Martyrs on August 1, the first day of the Dormition Fast.

The Roman Catholic Church which includes the First and Second Book of Maccabees among its canonical scriptures, assigns the Maccabees August 1st as their feast day. From the time of the Tridentine Calendar until 1960, they were mentioned at Mass through a commemoration within the feast of Saint Peter in Chains. When Pope John XXIII suppressed this feast of Saint Peter, the Maccabees remained the only feast to be commemorated on the date, but this time within the Mass of the feria. Those Catholics who worship in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite use this calendar of John XXIII, while certain schismatic groups use an even older one. However, the General Roman Calendar in force since 1969 for the ordinary form of the Roman Rite omits this commemoration. In addition, the three Ethiopian books of Meqabyan (canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but quite distinct works from the other four books of Maccabees) refer to the martyred Maccabees. The first of these books states that their father was a Benjamite named Maccabeus, and that three of the brothers, who are called Abya, Seela, and Fentos, were captured and martyred for leading a guerilla war against Antiochus Epiphanes.