Holy Martyrs of Abitinae

The Holy Martyrs of Abitinae were forty-nine Christians of Roman Africa, men and women, who in 304, under the emperor Diocletian, were arrested for taking part in the forbidden Sunday Eucharist. One of them spoke before the court the words that the Church repeats to this day: “Sine dominico non possumus.” The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on February 12.

Abitinae was a small town in Proconsular Africa, in what is now Tunisia. At that time Diocletian forbade Christians, on pain of death, to possess the Scriptures, to gather on Sundays for the Eucharist, and to build places for their assemblies. Fundanus, the bishop of Abitinae, handed the sacred books over to the officials. The faithful nevertheless went on meeting in secret in private houses, where the priest Saturninus celebrated the Eucharist for them.

One Sunday the town’s magistrates, together with the military guard, took them by surprise in the house of Octavius Felix. Those arrested were questioned on the spot and then sent in chains to Carthage, to the proconsul Anulinus. Among them were Saturninus with his four children: the lectors Saturninus and Felix, Maria, a virgin consecrated to God, and little Hilarianus, as well as the senator Dativus, the lector Emeritus, and the virgin Victoria.

The proconsul interrogated them on February 12, 304; Saint Augustine already gives this date. Despite torture, all confessed that they were Christians. Saint John Paul II quoted their answer in the letter “Dies Domini”: “Without fear of any kind we have celebrated the Lord’s Supper, because it cannot be missed; that is our law.” The lector Emeritus admitted that the assemblies had also been held in his house. Asked why he had broken the emperor’s order, he replied: “Sine dominico non possumus.” Benedict XVI explained these words in this way: we cannot live without joining together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist.

Victoria’s brother, the advocate Fortunatianus, tried to save her. He claimed that Dativus had lured her to Abitinae. She denied it: she had come of her own free will. According to the acts she said: “Yes, I went to the assembly and I celebrated the Lord’s Supper with my brothers and sisters, because I am a Christian.” Little Hilarianus, the youngest son of Saturninus, also confessed the faith before the judge.

Toward evening the proconsul had them led away to prison. We do not know for certain how each of them died: whether of hunger or of the wounds inflicted under torture. The Roman Martyrology says that they shed their blood in various places and at various times. The acts of their trial have come down to us with later additions, which historians distinguish from the original record of the interrogations.

The Martyrs of Abitinae have been venerated since antiquity, without a formal canonization. Benedict XVI spoke of them on May 29, 2005, in Bari, at the close of the Italian National Eucharistic Congress, held under the theme “Without Sunday we cannot live.” In the exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” he asked that they intercede for us and teach us to be faithful to our encounter with the risen Christ.