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Maris, Martha, Abachum and Audifax

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Maris, Martha, Abachum and Audifax
Martyrs
Born	3rd century, Persia
Died	270, Nymphae Catabassi, near Rome
Venerated in	Catholicism (formerly)
Major shrine	Rome
Feast	January 19, February 19
Catholic cult suppressed	1969
Saints Portal

Saints Maris, Martha, Abachum and Audifax (d. 270) were, according to their largely legendary passio of the 6th century^[1], four saints in the same family, of Persian origin, martyred in 270 for sympathizing with and burying the bodies of Christians. Some ancient martyrologies place the date of their death between 268 to 270, during the reign of Claudius II, although there was no persecution of Christians during this time.^[2] A recent edition of the Martyrologium Romanum places their martyrdom at the beginning of the fourth century instead, during the persecutions of Diocletian.^[3] Their story states that the family's assistance to the Christians exposed them to persecution. They were seized and delivered to the judge Muscianus or Marcianus, who, unable to persuade them to abjure their faith, condemned them to various tortures. Despite the torture, the saints refused to abjure. Maris and his two sons were thus beheaded on the Via Cornelia, and their bodies were burnt. Martha meanwhile was killed at a place called in Nimpha or Nymphae Catabassi (later called Santa Ninfa^[4]), thirteen miles from Rome. Tradition states that Martha was cast into a well.

1 Veneration
2 Notes
3 References
4 External links

Veneration

According to tradition, a Roman lady named Felicitas secured the half-consumed remains of the father and sons and also the mother's body from the well, and had the sacred relics secretly interred in on her estate at Buxus, today Boccea. This is said to have occurred on January 20 (January 20 was their former feast day).^[5] A church arose at Boccea, and during the Middle Ages, it became a place of pilgrimage.^[6]

Their relics suffered various vicissitudes: some were translated to the churches of Sant'Adriano al Foro and Santa Prassede, in Rome, and part of these relics were sent to Eginhard, biographer of Charlemagne, who lodged them in the monastery of Seligenstadt.^[7]