Biography
Firmus of Satala
About Firmus of Satala
Firmus is remembered with six other brothers in a Christian account of soldiers who suffered for their faith. The Catholic Church in Norway identifies their story as a legendary narrative preserved in Byzantine synaxaria.
In the received account, the brothers refuse to abandon Christianity and are sent into exile. Firmus, called Phirmos in the Orthodox Church in America account, dies with Firminus at Aspara on the eastern Black Sea coast.
The University of Balamand’s Bibliotheca Hagiographica Arabica lists Firmus separately from Firminus and links his memory to two Arabic manuscripts, Sinai Arabic 417 and 418. Both preserve the brothers’ collective story.
Their later commemoration also has a history of its own. The Norwegian church account explains that Baronius introduced the group into the Roman Martyrology in the late sixteenth century and that the 2001 edition does not include them. The Orthodox Church in America commemorates the seven brothers on June 24.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.