{"id":142687,"date":"2024-12-25T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142687"},"modified":"2024-12-25T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T11:00:21","slug":"the-martyrs-of-nicomedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/the-martyrs-of-nicomedia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Martyrs of Nicomedia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Nick,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hope you are so enraptured by the heavenly delights of today\u2019s celebrations that you don\u2019t get a chance to read this until later. \u00a0But on the off chance that you find yourself surfing on Christmas, there are two things worth thinking about today (actually many more than just two, but these will be good for a start). \u00a0The first has to do with these Nicomedian martyrs (Nicomedia is now called Izmut, a city near Istanbul, in Turkey). Almost everyone cites as unhistorical this heroic martyrdom of 20,000 Christians who had gathered to worship on Christmas day (it may have been Epiphany, which is an older celebration than Christmas; Christmas actually began to be celebrated in Rome in the fourth century, counteracting a revival of the pagan \u201cBirthday of the Unconquered Sun\u201d festival). \u00a0When they were all in the church for Mass, Emperor Diocletian ordered the doors locked, and fire readied around the building. Then he had an incense tripod erected outside the entrance, and the Christians were informed that any who would agree to burn incense in honor of the Roman gods would be let free. Not one of them was willing to abandon Christ their Lord to save their life. So the building was incinerated, and these courageous martyrs were born into heaven on the commemoration of our Lord\u2019s birth into the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may have inferred (rightly) that I am not among the skeptics on this one. \u00a0Who would think up such a story? In any case, it is a good reminder for you: on this most heartwarming day of the year, don\u2019t forget (don\u2019t <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ever<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> forget) to pray sincerely for the Christians who are suffering persecution for their faith, who are forbidden from or unable to celebrate the Birth of our Lord. \u00a0There are always more than we know in such a situation. Perhaps they live under an oppressive regime; perhaps they are in prison; perhaps they are at war\u2026 Let us pray (with the Nicomedian martyrs) that God grant them at least a touch of Christmas joy even so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second thing to think about is how Catholics celebrate these great liturgical solemnities \u2013 the celebration doesn\u2019t end when the sun goes down; it lasts for eight days, a period called \u201cthe octave of Christmas\u201d (or of whatever feast is being celebrated). \u00a0Sometimes we fall into the generic Christmas mold and don\u2019t give God all the credit he deserves on this great solemnity. Don\u2019t let that happen to you. Keep playing Christmas carols all week, even till Epiphany. Keep that tree up for eight more days at least. \u00a0Keep spreading the Christmas spirit; let it flow out of everything you do and say \u2013 the birth of God as man is too wondrous an event to squeeze into one little day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merry Christmas! \u00a0Uncle Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Nick, I hope you are so enraptured by the heavenly delights of today\u2019s celebrations that you don\u2019t get a chance to read this until later. \u00a0But on the off [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - 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John Bartunek, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC"},"description":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142687"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}