Soldiers under Julian
Juventinus and Maximinus - also given in the sources as Juventius and Maximus - were soldiers of the imperial guard of the emperor Julian. Before launching his campaign against the Sassanid Persians, Julian moved against the Christians of Antioch: he forbade the veneration of Christian relics and ordered that food sold in the marketplace and water drawn from the wells be contaminated with the blood of pagan sacrifices.
The two soldiers, distressed at the desecration of holy things, spoke openly at a banquet against the emperor's anti-Christian laws. Their words were reported, and they were summoned before Julian.
Martyrdom and Commemoration
Brought before the emperor, Juventinus and Maximinus refused to take back what they had said or to offer sacrifice to the idols. According to the Roman Martyrology, Julian had them stripped of their property, beaten, and beheaded. John Chrysostom notes that they were executed in the middle of the night on a charge of high treason, an attempt to keep them from being honored as martyrs for the faith. They are reckoned to have died about the 29th of January, 363.
Saint John Chrysostom composed a panegyric in their honor, the principal early witness to their cult. They are commemorated in the Eastern Church on September 5 and on October 9, and in the West on January 25. Major contemporary historians, including Ammianus Marcellinus, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Socrates of Constantinople, do not mention them.
