Early 4th century (martyred c. 305 AD)
Those converted through Saint Katherine's witness, including the empress, a general, philosophers, and soldiers, who were executed for confessing Christ.
Empress Augusta, the general Porphyrius, and those martyred with them are a group of converts won to Christ through the witness of Saint Katherine (Catherine) of Alexandria during her imprisonment under the Roman emperor (named in the sources as Maximinus, Maxentius, or Maximian). They are commemorated together on November 24, the day before the feast of Saint Katherine herself.
The group encompasses several distinct cohorts: a body of fifty learned philosophers and rhetoricians summoned by the emperor to refute Katherine but converted by her instead; the empress; the military commander Porphyrius; and the soldiers under his command. Each cohort, according to the synaxarion tradition, professed faith in Christ openly and was executed by the emperor's order.
The historicity of these secondary figures is not independently attested, and modern scholarship regards many of the details surrounding the Katherine narrative as later legendary developments. The Orthodox Church preserves them as a single commemoration in its calendar.
According to the tradition, the emperor (named Maximinus or Maximian in the sources) gathered fifty of the most learned men, rhetoricians, and philosophers of the empire and set them to dispute with Saint Katherine, hoping they would refute her Christian arguments.
Instead of overcoming her, the philosophers were persuaded by the saint's eloquence and reasoning and embraced the Christian faith themselves. By the emperor's order they were burned alive.
Having heard of Saint Katherine's remarkable faith, the Empress Augusta sought her out and visited her in prison, accompanied by the military commander Porphyrius and a body of soldiers. The sources give the number of soldiers as two hundred.
The visitors witnessed the miraculous destruction of the spiked wheel prepared for Katherine's execution. Moved by what they saw, the empress and Porphyrius confessed their faith in Christ publicly before everyone present, and the soldiers likewise converted.
The empress was beheaded. Porphyrius and the soldiers under his command were beheaded together with her. No individual veneration is documented separately for the soldiers beyond their collective commemoration.
The events are placed in the early 4th century, around 305 AD. The sources name the reigning emperor variously as Maximinus, Maxentius, or Maximian, and one tradition identifies the empress as Valeria Maximilla, wife of Maxentius.
Modern scholarship considers many of the details elaborating the Katherine narrative to be later legendary inventions, and the historicity of these secondary figures — the empress, the philosophers, and the soldiers — is not independently attested.
Named group kept as one row.