Mammes of Caesarea
semi-legendary child-martyr
Saint Mammes of Caesarea (Mamas, Mammas, Mammet, Mema; Greek: Μάμας; French: Mammès; Italian: Mamante; Spanish: Mamés; Portuguese: Mamede; Arabic: ماما/ماماس) was a child-martyr of the 3rd century, who was martyred at Caesarea. His parents, Theodotus and Rufina, were also martyred.
Life
Born in prison to parents who had been jailed for being Christians, Mammes became an orphan when his parents were executed. After their death, Mammes was raised by a rich widow named Ammia, who died when Mammes was 15 years old.
According to legend, Mammes was tortured for his faith by the governor of Caesarea and was then sent before the Roman Emperor Aurelian, who tortured him again. The Mammes legend states that an angel then liberated him and ordered him to hide on a mountain near Caesarea.
Mammes was later thrown to the lions, but he managed to make the beasts docile by preaching to them. Afterward, a lion remained with him as a companion. Accompanied by the lion, he visited Duke Alexander, who sentenced him to death. He was struck in the stomach with a trident.
“Mammes of Caesarea” enters the record as semi-legendary child-martyr. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mammes, Caesarea and semi-legendary can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q532019. VIAF identifies the subject as 3282785. The Library of Congress control number is n92008845. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mammes of Caesarea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.