Rufus and Zosimus, Two Pious Christians, in the Year 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.

Rufus stands out especially, from the greetings of the apostle Paul to the church at Rome, in which he includes Rufus not merely as an ordinary member of it, but as a distinguished, indeed a chosen person, for he says: "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine" (Romans 16, verse 13).

This Rufus and the Zosimus mentioned above, 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, in the year 109. Compare what A. Mellinus brings forward in Het groot Christen Martelaers Boeck, folio 19, column 4, from Polycarpo ad Philippens, with what J. Gysius has noted in Hist. Mart., folio 15, column 3. [n136-1]