The Seven Maccabees, Their Mother Solomonia, and the Priest Eleazar

Life

They all suffered for the purity of the faith of Israel at the hands of King Antiochus, called by some Epiphanes (the Enlightened) and by others Epimanes (the Madman). Because of great sins in Jerusalem, and especially because of the strife over the high-priestly authority and the crimes committed in that struggle, God permitted a great calamity to befall the holy city. Antiochus resolved at all costs to impose Greek idolatry upon the Jews in place of faith in the one living God, and did everything toward that end. Certain faithless high priests and other elders of Jerusalem aided him in this design. Once the king himself came to Jerusalem and ordered that all Jews eat swine's flesh, contrary to the Law of Moses, for eating swine's flesh was a manifest sign that one had renounced the faith of Israel. The elder Eleazar, a priest and one of the seventy translators of the Old Testament into Greek, would not eat swine's flesh. For this he was tortured and burned in fire. Returning to Antioch, the king took with him the seven sons called the Maccabees and their mother Solomonia. The seven Maccabee brothers were named: Abim, Antoninus, Eleazar, Gurias, Eusebonus, Alimus, and Marcellus. Before the eyes of their mother the wicked king tortured each son one by one, flaying the skin from each one's face and casting them into the fire. They all courageously endured the torments and death, yet did not renounce their faith. Finally, when the mother saw her last three-year-old son also in the fire, she too leaped into the fire and was consumed, committing her soul to God. They all suffered honorably for the faith in the one living God around 180 years before Christ.

From the Hymn of Praise

To the Precious Cross of ChristWe all reverently bow;By the power of the Cross of ChristWe are delivered from temptation.