Military Wiki, a free military encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, isn’t all about honor on the battlefield. I was surprised to find there an article about St. Maximilian of Thavaste (today Tebessa in Algeria). He was beheaded by the sword, a weapon he refused to take up.
This is a post in the series on Ordinary Radicals. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals remembers Maximilian in its March 12 entry. The prayer book notes that this is also the date, in 1977, that Rutilio Grande met a martyr’s fate in El Salvador. He was a non-violent agitator and spokesperson for the oppressed poor in that country.
Long before 274, the year of Maximilian’s birth, Rome had annexed Numidia, but relations were anything but peaceful. There were several attempts by Numidians to establish their own powerful state. Julius Caesar but a stop to the last in 46 BCE. After that, with a Roman legion in permanent residence, a period of prosperity ensued. Maximilian’s father, Fabius Victor, was a soldier in that Roman army.
Martyrdom
At age 21 Maximilian had to enlist. Before the proconsul he refused to swear allegiance to the emperor as a soldier. A Catholic saints site says we have “an early, precious, almost unembellished account” of Maximilian’s martyrdom:
Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, “I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.”
Dion replied: “You must serve or die.”
Maximilian: “I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian.”
Dion: “There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius.”
Maximilian: “That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve.”
Dion: “But what harm do soldiers do?”
Maximilian: “You know well enough.”
Dion: “If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army.”
Maximilian: “I shall not die. If I go from this earth, my soul will live with Christ my Lord.”
Maximilian believed that, as soldiers for Christ, we can die for Christ but we cannot kill for him. That meant his immediate beheading. He is the first conscientious objector whose name we know. Probably there were other Christians during that time who refused military service and were executed. (Source: Peoplepill.com)
Influence today
Military Wiki reports:
The 1970s anti-Vietnam War clergy group Order of Maximilian took their name from him. Maximilian’s name has been regularly read out, as a representative conscientious objector from the Roman Empire, at the annual ceremony marking International Conscientious Objectors’ Day, 15 May, at the Conscientious Objectors Commemorative Stone, Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London.
St. Maximilian’s feast day is March 12.
Image credit: Saint of the Day
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