Forty-Nine Martyrs of Scetis
The Forty-Nine Martyrs of Scetis were Christian monks of the monasteries of Scetis in Roman Egypt who were massacred by Berbers during a raid in 444. Two laymen were martyred along with them. Their relics lie in the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great. They are venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church, but not in the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches. Raid The Berber raid took place during a period of general unrest in Egypt. Arsenius the Great fled to Canopus at about this time owing to raids by the Berber Mazices, while Nestorius was released from his imprisonment during a Blemmyan attack on the Kharga Oasis. The raid on Scetis also took place amidst a dispute between the monks and the Emperor Theodosios II over the emperor's desire for a male heir. Over three years earlier, the emperor wrote to the monks asking for their prayers, but the monk Isidhurus wrote back that God would deny him a son because of his heresy (dyophysitism). In 444, the emperor was estranged from his wife, Aelia Eudocia, according to the Chronicon paschale. According to the accounts of the Forty-Nine Martyrs, he was pressed by some advisers and by his sister