Solomonia

(2 Macc. 7)—the traditional name given to the mother of the seven brothers martyred under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Second Maccabees does not name her. She witnessed the cruel torture and death of all her sons and strengthened each of them to remain faithful to God’s law, confessing the Creator’s power to restore life in the resurrection. She reminded the youngest that God made heaven and earth and humankind not from preexisting visible things, and urged him not to fear the executioner but to join his brothers so that she might receive them all again in mercy (2 Macc. 7:22–23, 28–29). After her sons, the mother also died.