Today's saintAll livesDecember saints
EA

Devotional card

Ss. Epimachus and Alexander

Saint-specific image not yet available.

This devotional card is shown because a saint-specific image is not yet available.

Saints and feasts

Ss. Epimachus and Alexander

&c., Martyrs

Epimachus and Alexander endured imprisonment and martyrdom at Alexandria during the persecution of Decius. Butler draws on the testimony of Dionysius of Alexandria.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Ancient witness: Dionysius of Alexandria
Butler follows the account preserved by Eusebius.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 12, “Ss Epimachus and Alexander, &c., Martyrs,” pp. 255-257.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 12, “Ss Epimachus and Alexander, &c., Martyrs,” pp. 255-257.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 12, “Ss Epimachus and Alexander, &c., Martyrs,” pp. 255-257.

Epimachus and Alexander were Christians at Alexandria during the persecution of Decius. After confessing their faith, they were put in chains and held in a harsh imprisonment. Butler follows Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, whose account was preserved by Eusebius.

Their long confinement did not persuade them to abandon Christ. They were beaten and tortured before being put to death by fire. The notice also remembers Christian women who suffered in the same persecution, including Mercuria, Dionysia and two women named Ammonarium.

Butler turns from their sufferings to the spirit in which Christian martyrdom is borne. The strength he praises rests on humility, love of God and forgiveness of persecutors. This reading keeps the Alexandrian setting and the named ancient witness, while leaving the detailed sequence of the other martyrs’ trials within the source’s account.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

This is the Alexandrian commemoration with Alexander on December 12. The source also discusses other martyrs; their individual trials are not collapsed into one execution.

Carry this reading into prayer

Act of Charity

Ask God for love of Him and your neighbor, and carry this reading into your own life.

Pray now →

Keep reading

Nearby saint lives

Move through the calendar without leaving the saint library. These nearby feast-day lives help keep the reading trail connected.

Previous feast

St. Finnian of Clonard

December 12

Next feast

St. Eadburga of Thanet

December 12

Browse December saintsBrowse all saint livesGo to today's feast
More prayers, novenas and litanies

More devotions

Continue in prayer

Choose a connected devotion or a clearly labeled general prayer.

Choose a novena

Find a novena for your intention

Browse existing novenas by the need you want to bring to prayer.

Choose a novena

Pray with all the saints

Litaniae Sanctorum

Invoke the communion of saints with the traditional Latin Litany of the Saints.

Pray the Latin litany

Keep learning

What is prayer?

Read question 1099 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.

Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5