From the Prologue of Ochrid
In the time of the wicked Emperor Maximian Herculius the Christian faith flourished in Nicomedia and increased from day to day. Once when the emperor was staying in that city, the emperor learned of the multitude of Christians and the advancement of the Christian Church, and the emperor became very embittered and devised a plan how to destroy them all. At that time the feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching, and the emperor, learning that all Christians gather in church for that feast, commanded that on that day the church be surrounded by soldiers and set on fire. When all the Christians had gathered in the church after midnight and began the solemn celebration, the soldiers surrounded the church so as not to let anyone out, and the emperor's envoy entered the church and proclaimed to the Christians the emperor's command, that they either immediately offer sacrifice to idols or all be burned. Then the archdeacon, a valiant soldier of Christ, was inflamed with divine zeal and began to encourage the people, reminding the faithful of the three youths in the Babylonian furnace. "Look, brethren," he said, "at the altar in the sanctuary of the Lord and understand that now upon it the Lord and our true God has sacrificed Himself for us; shall we then not lay down our souls for Him in this holy place!" The people were inspired to die for Christ, and all who were catechumens were baptized and chrismated. The soldiers then set fire to the church on all sides, and the Christians, twenty thousand of them in number, burned in the flames singing the glory of God. For five days afterward the church burned, and some smoke rose from it with an intoxicating and wondrous fragrance, and a certain strange golden-radiant light appeared in that place. Thus gloriously died many men and women, maidens and children, and they received the crown of eternal glory in the Kingdom of Christ. They suffered and were glorified in the year 302.
