The Martyrs of Lyons

Martyrs
(Died 177)

The martyrs of Lyons suffered in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the year 177. Although Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher celebrated for his Stoic virtue, his reign was marked by severe persecutions of Christians throughout the empire. In Lyons and Vienne in Gaul, a large community of Christians, many of them immigrants from Asia Minor and Greece, was subjected to violent mob attacks and then to official judicial proceedings.

The sufferings of these martyrs are recorded in a precious letter preserved by the historian Eusebius. Among the most celebrated were Saint Pothinus, the aged bishop of Lyons, who was over ninety years old; Sanctus, a deacon from Vienne; Attalus, a Roman citizen of Pergamum; and above all, Blandina, a young slave girl whose courage astounded her persecutors. Blandina was subjected to every form of torture her torturers could devise, and through the whole ordeal she repeated over and over: I am a Christian, and there is no evil done among us.

Pothinus was brought before the tribunal so weak that he could barely breathe, yet he refused to deny his faith and was beaten by the crowd and thrown into prison, where he died two days later. The others were exposed to wild beasts in the amphitheatre, burnt on iron seats, and subjected to other unspeakable sufferings. Blandina was finally wrapped in a net and tossed by a bull, and then killed with a sword. In all, forty-eight Christians gave their lives in this persecution.

The Church celebrates their feast on June 2. They are among the earliest and most fully documented martyrs of the Western Church, and their testimony has inspired Christians in every age.