One of five Egyptian Christians martyred in Roman Palestine in 310 after visiting fellow believers imprisoned in the mines.

Jeremiah of Caesarea was one of five Egyptian Christians martyred together at Caesarea in Roman Palestine on February 16, 310, during the Diocletianic persecution. According to the historian Eusebius, the group was arrested at the city gate after traveling from Egypt to visit and encourage fellow Christians imprisoned in the Palestinian mines, and all five were put to death together.

Quick Facts

• Died: February 16, 310, Caesarea in Palæstina (Roman Palestine)
• Role: Layperson and martyr
• Companions: Saints Elias, Isaiah, Samuel, and Daniel of Caesarea
• Feast Day: February 16

Who Was Saint Jeremiah of Caesarea in Palæstina?

Jeremiah of Caesarea was one of five Egyptian Christians — with Elias, Isaiah, Samuel, and Daniel — martyred together at Caesarea in Roman Palestine on February 16, 310, during the Diocletianic persecution. According to the account preserved by the historian Eusebius, the group had traveled from Egypt intending to visit and encourage Christian prisoners held in the Palestinian mines, only to be arrested themselves at the city gate when questioned by guards.

Historical Setting

The persecution under Diocletian and his successors was the last and in places the most severe of the Roman Empire’s campaigns against Christianity, and Eusebius, who lived through this period in Caesarea itself, recorded numerous such episodes of ordinary believers arrested for acts of solidarity with imprisoned Christians rather than for any public preaching of their own.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Jeremiah of Caesarea in Palæstina

The Church remembers Jeremiah and his four companions for an act of simple charity — visiting persecuted Christians in the mines — that became, almost by accident of circumstance, its own occasion for martyrdom. Their arrest at the gate for merely admitting they were Christians shows how dangerous even minimal association with the faith had become by this point in the persecution.

Canonization and Feast Day

What preserves Jeremiah of Caesarea’s memory is not a later Roman decree but Eusebius’s ancient testimony, shared with the record of his four companions; the resulting cult is immemorial and local to Caesarea rather than the product of any formal process.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Jeremiah’s martyrdom began not as a public act of preaching but as a simple errand of mercy toward other suffering Christians — a reminder that ordinary acts of solidarity with those who suffer for their faith can themselves become costly and can themselves be holy.

A Prayer to Saint Jeremiah of Caesarea in Palæstina

Saint Jeremiah of Caesarea, you set out only to comfort other Christians in prison and found yourself sharing their fate. Give us your same readiness to stand with those who suffer for the faith, whatever that solidarity may eventually cost us. Amen.

Sources

• Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine
• Roman Martyrology
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia