RUFUS AND ZOSIMUS, TWO PIOUS CHRISTIANS, BEHEADED AT PHILIPPI IN MACEDONIA, FOR THE FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, A. D. 109
Rufus and Zosimus were disciples of Christ and His apostles, and had also been instrumental in founding and building up the church of God among the Jews and the Gentiles. Especially conspicuous is Rufus, from the greetings of the apostle Paul to the church at Rome, in which he includes Rufus, not merely as a common member of the same, but as a distinguished, yea chosen person, for he says, "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine" (Rom. 16:13). This Rufus and the aforementioned Zosimus, both pious and upright Christians, together with many of their fellow believers, were put to death for the faith, in the city of Philippi in Macedonia, Some write that both were beheaded in the days of Emperor Trajan, A. D. 109. Compare what A. Mellinus adduces in Het groot Christen Martelcers-bcek, fol. 19, col. 4, from Polycarpo ad Philippens, with that which J. Gysius has noted in Hist. Mart., fol. 15, col. 3. THE ETHIOPIAN OR EUNUCH OF QUEEN CANDACE, WHO WAS BAPTIZED BY PHILIP, PUT TO DEATH FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST, IN THE ISLAND OF CAPROBANO, A. D. 110 Immediately after Rufus and Zosimus, A. Mellinus introduces the Ethiopian or eunuch of Queen Candace in Ethiopia, who was converted by Philip to the faith in Jesus Christ, and thereupon baptized, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. It is stated of him, from Jerome, that he preached the Gospel of our Lord in Arabia Felia, and also in a certain island of the Red Sea, called Caprobano (some call it Ceylon), where, it is supposed, he suffered death for the testimony of the truth. See above, Mellin. ex Hieron. Catal. in Crescente, in 53, cap. Esad.
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