The ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat were, according to a medieval legend, Roman soldiers who, led by Saint Acacius, converted to Christianity and were crucified on Mount Ararat in Armenia by order of the Roman emperor. The story is attributed to the ninth century scholar Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
In the Roman Catholic Church the martyrs are commemorated on March 18 and June 22, according to entries in the Roman Martyrology.
In the Greek Orthodox Church the Great Synaxaristes has a reference on June 1 for the "The Holy Ten Thousand Martyrs" in Antiochia, under the Roman Emperor Decius.
Despite its questionable veracity, the event was extremely popular in Renaissance art, as seen for example in the painting 10,000 martyrs of Mount Ararat by the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio, or in the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by the German artist Albrecht Dürer.
Famous quotes containing the words ten thousand, ten, thousand and/or martyrs:
“They was givin’ me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I’m hot to trot. Next woman takes me on gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars.”
—Laurence Hauben, U.S. screenwriter, Bo Goldman, and Milos Forman. Randall McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)
“I married a miner myself. I had ten children. I’ve got seven now; thirty-one grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. And I’m happy to say not a one’s ever crossed a picket line.”
—Florence Reese (c. 1900–?)
“The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer have all written about the same things, and if they had lived one thousand or two thousand years longer, the publishers wouldn’t have needed anyone since.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)