Armogaste, Masculas, Archinimus and Satur

Year: circa 461
Feast Day: March 29

In Africa, the holy confessors Armogaste, a count, Masculas, Archimimus, and Satur, steward of the palace, who, during the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Genseric, having endured numerous and cruel tortures and insults, gloriously finished the course of their combat in confession of the truth. Around 461.

In 460, Genseric, renewing all the horrors of the Diocletian persecution, forced the priests and ministers of the Lord to hand over the sacred books and ornaments to the heretics. Valerianus, bishop of Abbenza (in the Zeugitana), and Archininus¹, born at Mascula in Numidia, distinguished themselves above all others by their constancy. The first, who invincibly refused to surrender the sacred things, was driven from the city by order of the king, and no one was permitted to take him into their home or even allow him to remain on their land. Thus this old man, more than eighty years of age, found himself reduced to complete destitution, with nothing for a bed but the public road; and this fact is attested to us by Victor of Vita, who had gone to greet him in this wretched exile of a new kind. The second, courted at first with fine words and promises from the king, stood firm in confessing the Catholic truth. In condemning him to death, the executioner was secretly ordered to strike him only if he saw him tremble at the moment of receiving the fatal blow; but it was agreed that he would be spared if he remained calm before the threat of the sword. Led by the executioner, he offered no resistance, and kneeling down, he presented his head without flinching any more than a pillar. His firmness thus saved his life without costing him his merit².
The following year, Armogaste, who belonged to the court of Theodoric, Genseric’s second son, had resisted the offers and threats of the treacherous Arians, when he saw the executioners come to bind his legs violently with cords and his temples with ox sinews. The holy man, in the midst of this anguish, raised his eyes to heaven, calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ; yet the bonds broke apart several times, to the great astonishment of the Arians, who doubled the cords and repeated the torture. But their surprise was far greater still when they saw on his brow, not deep marks nor broken skin, but mere wrinkles. He was hung by one foot, head down; but without succeeding either in shaking his resolve, or, it seems, in causing him suffering: for, sustained by the help of God, he appeared to sleep peacefully as though he were on a soft bed. On hearing this, Theodoric ordered that his head be cut off; but Jocundus, an Arian priest, pointed out to the prince that in taking this man’s life, he would give the Romans (that is, the Catholics) cause to honor him as a martyr. Accordingly, changing his mind, he had Armogaste exiled to Byzacena, condemning him to labor on earthworks. Later the holy Confessor was brought back to the countryside near Carthage and, to expose him to the contempt of all, reduced to working as a herdsman. He bore this humiliation with the same constancy he had shown in his earlier trials; then, knowing that the day of his death was approaching, he sent for Félix, a sincere Catholic though steward of Theodoric’s household, and showed him the place beneath a tree where he wished his body to be buried. His friend was reluctant to make him this promise, saying that he intended to bury him instead in one of the city’s basilicas; but the holy man insisted so strongly that he obtained Félix’s word. Some time afterward, Armogaste was delivered by death; and Félix, faithful to his pledge, set about having the ground dug at the marked spot to render him the last rites, when he found, in the excavation begun for this purpose, a marble sarcophagus such as could scarcely have been made for a king. Rejoicing at this discovery, he laid the body of this courageous athlete of the faith in this wondrous tomb. As for Theodoric and his friend Jocundus, their Arian zeal counted for little under the reign that followed.

Memories of the Church of Africa.

Morcelli writes Archinimus; but this name would represent a half-Greek, half-meaningless origin. Moreover, since Ninus is a name that appears often in the monuments of Africa, it seems that one can read it with certainty as Archinimus.
Vict. Vit., I: “Etsi martyrum invidus hostis noluit facere, confessorem tamen nostrum non potuit violare”

Source: Les Petits Bollandistes