Saint Samona and Her Seven Sons (168 B.C.)

This is the feast of the heroic mother of the Machabees, and her seven sons who were cruelly martyred one by one and encouraged to die by their mother for the true faith of Israel and the belief in the Messias to come. Their story is dramatically told in the Second Book of the Machabees, Chapter 7. Their relics were brought to Constantinople by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, and later were translated to Rome.

Maccabees, by Wojciech Stattler (1800–1875) source

Maccabees, by Wojciech Stattler (1800–1875) source