Martyr Old Testament

Martyr Solomonia Mother of the Maccabees

2nd century BC

Also known as Solomonia · Salome

The mother of the seven Maccabee brothers, who watched each of her sons die rather than deny God and urged them on to the contest, and at the last gave up her own life, the very pattern of a martyr-mother.

Feast Day

August 1

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Commemorated as

The Holy Martyr Solomonia, Mother of the Holy Maccabees

Life

Solomonia is the name given in Eastern Orthodox tradition to the mother of the seven Maccabee brothers, who suffered martyrdom together with her sons during the persecution of the Jewish people under the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Their refusal to abandon the Law of Moses, even under torture and death, made them an enduring pattern of faithfulness for both Jews and Christians.

The account of the woman and her seven sons is preserved in the deuterocanonical Second Book of Maccabees, with a fuller, more philosophical retelling in Fourth Maccabees. The mother is left unnamed in these texts; the name Solomonia belongs to later tradition, while Syriac Christians call her Shmouni and Jewish sources call her Hannah or Miriam.

Having watched each of her sons put to death in the course of a single day rather than violate the Law, Solomonia is venerated as a martyr-mother who strengthened her children in their confession and at the last surrendered her own life. She is commemorated on August 1.

Timeline 4 moments Read Hide

c. 166 BC Persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes The Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who favored Hellenistic customs and held Jewish observance in contempt, sought to compel the Jews to abandon the Law of Moses and to worship in the manner of the Greeks. According to tradition a statue of Zeus was set up in the Temple.
c. 166 BC Trial at Antioch Solomonia and her seven sons were brought to trial before Antiochus, who demanded that they eat the flesh of swine, forbidden by the Law. They refused.
c. 166 BC Martyrdom of the seven sons The brothers were tortured and killed one after another in their mother's sight. The eldest had his tongue cut out, was scalped, and had his hands and feet cut off before being cast into a heated pan; the rest were put to death in turn. Each affirmed his faith, the last declaring his brothers to have died under God's covenant of everlasting life.
c. 166 BC Death of Solomonia After witnessing the deaths of all seven of her sons, Solomonia raised her hands in prayer to God and died. The ancient sources differ over the manner of her death.

Contributions & Legacy

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The Account in Maccabees

The principal source for the martyrdom is the seventh chapter of Second Maccabees, a deuterocanonical book describing the persecution of the Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. There the mother and her seven sons are arrested and ordered, under torture, to eat pork in violation of the Mosaic Law. Each son in turn refuses and is put to death, while the mother encourages them all.

Second Maccabees relates that the mother watched her seven sons die in the space of a single day, yet bore it bravely because she put her trust in the Lord. Rather than breaking under the ordeal, she strengthened her sons' resolve, and each made a confession of faith before his death.

A second source, Fourth Maccabees, retells the same events at greater length and with a philosophical cast, presenting the martyrs as exemplars of reason ruling over the passions. The two books together shaped the way the family was remembered as martyrs.

Her Name in Tradition

The mother is left unnamed in Second and Fourth Maccabees, and various religious communities later gave her different names. Eastern Orthodox tradition knows her as Solomonia. Syriac Christians call her Shmouni or Shmuni, and Armenian sources call her Shamuna.

Jewish tradition assigns her still other names: Hannah, or Chana, in the medieval Josippon, and Miriam bat Nahtom, Miriam the baker's daughter, in Lamentations Rabbah. The variety of names reflects how widely her story was received and retold across communities.

Veneration and Legacy

Solomonia, her seven sons, and their teacher, the elder Eleazar, a ninety-year-old scribe who also suffered for the Law, are venerated together as the Holy Maccabean Martyrs. Their feast is kept on August 1 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and in traditional Catholic calendars.

The Church Fathers honored the martyrs in their preaching; Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory Nazianzus, called the Theologian, both delivered homilies on them. Their steadfastness was also remembered as having inspired the revolt of Judas Maccabeus, who afterward purified the Temple.

By Antiochene Christian tradition the relics of the martyrs were interred at Antioch on the site of a former synagogue. Tombs later associated with them were reported at the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome in 1876, and another in the Jewish cemetery of Safed.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints