St. Maximilian of Tebessa

St. Maximilian of Tebessa was a young Christian of Numidia in Roman North Africa, the son of a Roman veteran named Victor, who was brought before the proconsul at Tebessa in the year 295 to be enrolled in the imperial army, as was required of the sons of veterans. His trial is preserved in an early and reliable account of the proceedings, which records his words with unusual immediacy.

Standing before the magistrate, the twenty-one-year-old Maximilian refused to serve or to receive the soldier's badge, declaring, "I cannot serve as a soldier; I am a Christian," and insisting that his conscience would not allow him to bear arms or to wear the emblem of the pagan emperor around his neck. Neither the pleadings of the proconsul nor the appeals to his father moved him, and he chose death rather than compromise his faith. He was beheaded, and his body was buried by a devout woman near the tomb of St. Cyprian at Carthage. Venerated as a martyr, his memory is kept on 12 March.