These modern-day martyrs, beheaded by ISIS for their Christian faith, are akin to the 42 Martyrs of Amorion in Phrygia, whose memory we celebrate on March 6.The Martyrs of Amorion were members of the Byzantine army who were taken captive when the city of Amorion in Phrygia fell to the Muslim Arab armies in the year 838. Their captors did not kill them immediately, but offered them great rewards if they converted to Islam. These heroic men refused. Their captors held them for seven years, finally beheading them in the year 845.
Apolytikion of the 42 Holy Martyrs of Amorion: “Your Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest for You received as the prize the crowns of incorruption and life from You, our immortal God. For since they possessed Your strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by their prayers, save our souls, since You are merciful.”
“Coptic Christians Remember the 21 Martyrs Beheaded by Terrorists,” International Christian Concern, February 17, 2022:
02/17/2022 Egypt (International Christian Concern) – On February 15, 2015, twenty Egyptian Coptic Christians and one Ghanian Christian were killed by terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State on the beaches of Libya in a gruesome video published by the terrorist group. The beheading of the Christians seven years ago was remembered by the Coptic Orthodox Church this year, along with many around the world.
Celebrations, prayers and services were held in Egypt in memorial of the martyrs who were captured in January 2015 and later killed, with the Islamic State publishing the video on February 15 of the same year. The memorial events culminated this year at the shrine-museum in Al-Awar, the village from which many of the martyrs came. The bodies of the martyrs were discovered in September 2017 in a mass grave and rehomed to the shrine of the Martyrs of the Faith and Homeland Church….
