Holy Scillitan Martyrs

The Scillitan Martyrs were twelve Christians from Scillium in Roman Africa, seven men and five women. The proconsul Saturninus condemned them at Carthage to death by the sword because they confessed that they were Christians and refused to swear by the genius of the emperor. The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on July 17, the day of their martyrdom.

Nothing is known of their lives before the trial; even the exact location of Scillium is unknown. Everything we know about them comes from the short record of the hearing held at Carthage on July 17, 180. It is the oldest surviving record of martyrs from Roman Africa and, at the same time, the beginning of the documented history of the Church there. The judge was the proconsul Vigellius Saturninus, of whom Tertullian later wrote that he was the first to draw the sword against the Christians there.

According to the acts, six of them stood before the proconsul: Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Donata, Secunda, and Vestia. Saturninus promised them the emperor’s pardon if they came to their senses and urged them to swear by his genius and to pray for his welfare. Speratus replied that they had never done wrong and that when they were mistreated they gave thanks. He also said: “I do not recognize the empire of this world”; he served the God whom no one has seen, he did not steal, and he paid the tax on whatever he bought, because he knew his Lord, the King of kings. Cittinus added that they feared no one but the Lord God who is in heaven. Donata said: “Honor to Caesar as Caesar, but fear to God”; Vestia: “I am a Christian”; and Secunda: “What I am, that I wish to be.”

The proconsul asked whether they wanted time to consider. Speratus answered that in so straightforward a matter there was nothing to consider. Asked what they had in their chest, he replied: “Books and letters of Paul, a just man.” When Saturninus nevertheless gave them thirty days’ delay, Speratus repeated: “I am a Christian,” and all agreed with him. Then the proconsul read out from a tablet the sentence of death by the sword. Speratus said: “We give thanks to God,” and Nartzalus: “Today we are martyrs in heaven. Thanks be to God.”

At the proconsul’s order the herald proclaimed the names of the twelve condemned: Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata, and Secunda. They all answered: “Thanks be to God.” The acts close with the words that together they were crowned with martyrdom and reign with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Their memory lived on in the Church of Africa: Saint Augustine preached on their feast day, and several of these sermons have survived. In 1996, after his journey to Tunisia, Saint John Paul II recalled “Saint Speratus and companions,” who shed their blood at Carthage for faith in the one God. The Scillitan Martyrs have been venerated since antiquity, without a formal canonization.