Martyrs of Egypt: Calodote Macarius & Companions

The Holy Martyrs Calodote, Macarius, and their Companions were a company of Christians, both men and women, who suffered together in Egypt and are commemorated on September 6. The synaxarion lists the group as Calodote, Macarius, Andrew, Cyriacus, Dionysius, Andrew the Soldier, Andropelagia, Thecla, Theoctistus, and Sarapabon the Senator. Among them were people of varied station, including a soldier and a senator, who were put to death by the sword for their confession of Christ.

The dating of the company differs among the sources that record it. The in-repository commemoration places their martyrdom in the year 256, while the Western tradition associated with these names assigns them to the persecution of the emperor Decius in 250. The names of the company are preserved in both the Eastern synaxaria and the Roman Martyrology, the latter of which numbers the group as Faustus and Macarius with their companions, a sign that the same Egyptian martyrs were remembered across traditions on the sixth of September.

The Alexandrian and Egyptian Church suffered severely during the mid-third-century persecutions, and the sufferings of its faithful in this period were recorded by their own bishop, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria, in letters preserved by the historian Eusebius. The company of Calodote and Macarius belongs to this broader body of Egyptian witnesses, who included clergy, soldiers, and laypeople of both sexes martyred together for refusing to renounce the faith.