St. Acacius

This June 22 entry concerns the tradition of the Ten Thousand Martyrs on Mount Ararat. The Roman Martyrology remembered their crucifixion on that date. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 treats their commemoration separately from another group of ten thousand martyrs remembered at Nicomedia on March 18.

The Ararat legend describes soldiers who turned to Christ, refused pagan sacrifice, and suffered together. The encyclopedia identifies serious historical difficulties in the account and records the judgement of scholars who regarded its Acts as apocryphal. Its battle scenes, speeches, and sequence of events cannot supply a secure biography of an individual martyr.

Veneration of the Ten Thousand spread to several European countries. That history of devotion is distinct from proof of the details told in the legend. This entry therefore recalls the June 22 commemoration while leaving the individual life and circumstances of death uncertain.