54. Rufus and Zosimus
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 Martel- aers-baek, jol. 19, col. 4, from Polycarpo ad Philip-pens, with that which J. Gysius has noted in Hist. Mart., fol. 15, col. 3.
Thieleman J. Van Braght (1625-1664) was an Anabaptist who is best known for writing a history of the Christian witness throughout the centuries entitled “The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians who baptized only upon confession of faith, and who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, their Saviour, from the time of Christ to the year A.D. 1660” (1660).
Thieleman J. Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror
