Thursday, April 30, 2026

It is the 30th of April 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Sure, it’s the 30th of April to us- but, perhaps we might also call today- the day before the Kalends of May, and that could take us to the 8th consulship of Galerius- or, the 30th of April in 311- a red letter day for persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire.

If I were to ask you about the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, what names come to mind? Nero? Sure- that’s back in the 60s AD and is one of the first “big persecutions”- and then we know that they were sporadic in the early days of the church- (not as bad as sometimes made out to be, but sometimes pretty bad)- and then the big name? The emperor Diocletian. The Diocletian Persecution of the church in the early 300s is the other “big one”. But what if I told you that Diocletian might be getting a bad rap? That the Diocletian persecution might better be pegged to another man, Galerius. Let’s tell his story, and why today’s date matters.

The Roman Empire was established by Caesar Augustus, both the name and the title of Octavius. Future emperors would take the title until the crisis of the Third Century in Rome, when there were two Augusti- the emperor Diocletian named Maximian a co-Augustus, and then both were given “Caesars” as juniors. Maximian had Constantius Chlorus in the West, and Galerius was made a Caesar under the Augustus Diocletian in the East.

Galerius was born around 250 in modern Bulgaria and rose from peasant stock to a life in the military. Diocletian recognized his abilities and married him to his daughter and made him one of the 4 leaders of what we call the Tetrarchy. Of the 4 Galerius was the most rabidly anti-Christian. He had spent his time on the Danube and fighting the Persians- for him, being “roman” and not a foreign “barbarian” was paramount, and he was suspicious of Christians for failing to be properly pious to the Roman Gods.

An event occurred possibly in 301 in Antioch. Diocletian and Galerius had Roman priests performing a divination ceremony wherein they would read animal entrails, but the entrails weren’t divining. The priests blamed the presence of “profane persons present,” and Galerius was told that certain Christians had made the sign of the cross, profaning the proceedings.

Enraged, he called for Diocletian to unleash an empire-wide persecution of Christians, starting with the soldiers and then all who didn’t sacrifice to the Roman Gods. His complaint was that Christianity was a foreign and barbaric- non-Roman practice. Diocletian, who was the senior Augusti, wasn’t completely on board but allowed for a new wave of somewhat limited persecution. It was during this that he, according to sources, lost the will to rule and abdicated. Galerius took over in the East, and the persecution of Christians, perhaps the largest to date, was underway. We read from Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea about the reign of terror- thousands killed for refusing to sacrifice to Roman Gods- a sign of your fidelity to the state. This would be the greatest and last of the anti-Christian persecutions, with perhaps half of all early Christian martyrs dying in this period.

But it was in 311 that Galerius fell ill- those less inclined towards him tell stories of him being consumed by worms. In his desperate state he would rescind his edict of persectuion- in fact, according to Lactantius the Christians would be saved if they prayed to their God for the good of the Roman Empire- their prayers could take the place of sacrifices to Roman Gods- this decree, made on this day, the 30th of April in 311 would end official persecution- Galerius would die, Constantine would soon ascend to the top and the rest is history.

And that wraps SEVEN years of daily shows… join us tomorrow as we kick off season 8 and head into the weekend with a mega mailbag of your great questions.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and is appropriate for today- A story from Acts 6:

8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 30th of April 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who also hates it when the entrails aren’t divining. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who never spells Caesar right the first time- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.