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Saints Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Bury the Dead

Feast Day February 19 (all died in 270)

Maris and his wife, Martha came to Rome with their sons, Audifax and Abachum during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. As passionate Christians, they sympathized with and helped the persecuted faithful, and buried the bodies of those killed for their beliefs. This made them vulnerable to revenge and they were seized and brought before a judge who, after finding they were unwilling to renounce their faith, condemned them to various tortures. Their final torture was final: Maris and his sons were beheaded and their bodies burned; Martha was thrown into a well. A Roman lady named Felicitas obtained the half-consumed remains of the father and sons and also the mother's body from the well, and had the sacred relics secretly kept in a catacomb, on the thirteenth before the Kalends of February (January 20th).