First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church

Today we remember the first Christians killed in Rome, and not a single one of their names is known. In July of 64 a fire burned Rome for nine days and destroyed much of the city. Rumor had it that Nero was behind it. To shake off the suspicion, the emperor looked for culprits and found them in that new and disliked sect called the Christians. What happened is told by Tacitus, who had no sympathy for them — and that is exactly why his testimony is worth so much. He writes that they were arrested in great numbers, condemned not so much for the fire as for “hatred of the human race,” and that mockery was added to the killings: covered in animal skins and torn apart by dogs, crucified, or burned alive at nightfall to serve as lamps in Nero’s gardens. And he adds something surprising: that in the end, even though they were guilty and deserved exemplary punishment, people began to feel pity for them, because it was clear they were dying not for the public good but for the cruelty of one man. The memorial falls the day after that of Peter and Paul, and the reason is clear: they are the ordinary people of that same persecution. They have no biographies, no relics, no churches named after them. The Church remembers them all together because not one of them can be remembered alone.