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St. Maximilian of Thebeste
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Saints and feasts
St. Maximilian of Thebeste
Martyr
Maximilian of Thebeste, also called Tebessa, was a young North African Christian who refused military enrolment because of its conflict with his faith. His commemoration is March 12.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source and secondary note
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume III, Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1842; March 12, “St. Maximilian, M.,” pp. 175-176. Labeled secondary note: Michael Ott, “Maximilian,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume X, Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1911, section “Maximilian of Thebeste,” for the differing death year; https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10075a.htm.
Maximilian was the son of Victor, a Christian soldier in North Africa. When he reached the age for military service, officials examined him for enrolment. Butler describes the measuring of the young man and the demand that he accept the identifying mark of a soldier.
Maximilian refused. His objection arose from the religious practices connected with the Roman army, which he believed he could not accept without betraying his Christian faith. The pressure to comply did not overcome that conviction. He was condemned and beheaded.
Butler directs the reader to the martyr’s acts collected by Ruinart. The March 12 commemoration belongs to this North African Maximilian, also associated with the place-name Tebessa, rather than to the other martyrs of the same name. The reading leaves the precise year open because the cited Butler edition and other early reference works give different dates.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 Butler edition. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
Thebeste, Theveste and Tebessa refer to the same place. Butler prints 296; the labeled secondary note from the Catholic Encyclopedia’s 1911 article gives 295. No universal prohibition of military service or patronage of conscientious objectors is inferred from this individual account.
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