caption death_date death_place feast_day imagesize venerated_in image article_title name
miniature from the '' menologion of basil ii '' ~ 303 or 311-12 ad nicomedia april 27 300px roman catholic church ; eastern orthodox church anthimus him -lrb- menologion of basil ii -rrb- . jpg , bishop of nicomedia , and those with anthimus of nicomedia
 saint anthimus of nicomedia
anthimus of nicomedia

anthimus of nicomedia -lrb- martyred 303 or 311 -- 12 -rrb- , was the bishop of nicomedia in bithynia , where he was beheaded during a persecution of christians , traditionally placed under diocletian -lrb- following eusebius -rrb- , in which `` rivers of blood '' flowed .
nicomedia was diocletian 's chief place of residence and was half-christian , the palace itself being filled with christians .
christian sources memorialized the `` 20,000 martyrs of nicomedia '' .
the main christian church of nicomedia was destroyed on february 23 , 303 , and the first edict was published on the following day .
the massacres transpired in the christian communities of bithynia after altars were set up in the marketplaces , in which no transactions were permitted until a token sacrifice to the gods and the `` daemon '' of the augustus had been performed .
anthimus took refuge in the small village of omana , where , when the soldiers of maximinus were sent to find him , he welcomed them and fed them before he revealed who he was .
the detail referring to maximinus suggests that two persecutions have been conflated .
philip schaff and henry wace note that a fragmentary letter preserved in the `` chronicon paschale '' , as written in prison by the presbyter lucian of antioch awaiting death , mentions anthimus , bishop of nicomedia , as having just suffered martyrdom .
schaff and wace note that lucian was imprisoned and put to death during the persecution of maximinus daia -lrb- in 311 or 312 -rrb- and therefore conclude that , if the fragment is genuine , anthimus suffered martyrdom not under diocletian but under maximinus .
