Holy 7 Maccabean Martyrs: Habim, Antonios, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Hadim and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar

The Maccabean martyrs suffered c. 166 BC, when the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to force the Jews of Judea to abandon the Law of Moses. The Second Book of Maccabees (chapters 6–7) tells of Eleazar, a scribe of ninety, who refused even to pretend to eat pork so as not to mislead the young, and of seven brothers who were tortured to death one after another before their mother; she encouraged each of them and died last. Later tradition gave them their names, the mother being called Solomonia. Christians honoured them from early times; St Augustine and St Gregory the Theologian preached on their feast.