First Martyrs of the Church of Rome

Who they were

The day after the solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, the Church remembers the first Christians of Rome, whose names are unknown, killed in Nero's persecution. After the great fire of Rome in July 64, which some blamed on Nero himself, the emperor, as the historian Tacitus writes, shifted the blame onto the Christians and put them to terrible deaths.

Pope St Clement of Rome wrote of the great multitude of the elect who, after much suffering from the hatred of others, gave the Church a splendid example.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: the first martyrs of Rome are honoured as a group, whose names only God knows. Their memorial on 30 June was added to the calendar after the Second Vatican Council.

Why that counted as sanctity

Nameless men and women of the first Roman Church gave their lives for Christ alongside the apostles, the first fruits of all the Church's martyrs.