Saint Barsabias | |
|---|---|
| Died | 342 Astahara, near the ruins of Persepolis, Persia |
| Feast | 20 October |
Saint Barsabias (d. 342) was an abbot and missionary who was martyred in Persia. His feast day is 20 October.
The monks of St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate, in their Book of Saints (1921) wrote,
BARSABIAS and OTHERS (SS.) MM. (Oct. 20)
(4th century) A Persian Abbot and his eleven monks put to death as Christians by the persecuting King, Sapor II, near the ruins of Persepolis (A.D. 342). [1]
The hagiographer Alban Butler wrote,
[Oct. 20]
St. Barsabias, Abbot, and His Companions, Martyrs, in Persia. Eugenius, called by the Orientals Abus, by the Chaldæans Avus, that is, Our Father, and corruptly by Sozomen, Aones, was a disciple of the great St. Antony. Travelling into the East, he founded and governed a numerous monastery near Nisibus, from whence he sent out colonies over all Persia, in which country there were many monasteries in the fourth century, as appears from Theodoret, Barebræus, and other Syrian writers. Sozomen tells us, that these monks, the disciples of Abus, completed the conversion of all Syria, and by their preaching brought to the right faith many among the Persians and Saracens. Barsabias was one of these zealous disciples of Abus, and was abbot in Persia, having under him ten monks, whom he educated with great attention and care in the paths of Christian perfection. His distinguished zeal made the persecutors mark him out one of the first for the slaughter. [2]He was apprehended in the beginning of the great persecution of Sapor, and impeached before the governor of the province upon an indictment that he laboured to abolish in Persia the religion of the Magians. [3] With him his ten monks were led in chains to Astahara, a city near the ruins of Persepolis, where the governor of the province resided. This inhuman judge racked his brain to invent the most cruel kind of torments to inflict upon them. By his order their knees were bruised and shattered, their legs were broken; then their arms, sides, and ears were cut and torn in the most barbarous manner, their eyes were beaten, and their faces were swollen and inflamed with the buffets they had received. At length, the governor, enraged to see himself vanquished by their invincible virtue, and tired with tormenting them, condemned them to lose their heads. The martyrs walked joyfully to the place of execution, singing the praises of God in hymns and psalms, being surrounded by a great troop of soldiers and executioners, and followed by an incredible number of people. The good abbot desired earnestly to send before him to bliss, all those souls which God had committed to his charge, and this petition which he put up to God with great ardour and charity, was granted. [4]
The slaughter was already begun, when a Magian who happened to be travelling that way, with his wife, two children, and several servants, seeing the crowd, rode up through the people with a servant before him, to see what the matter was. He beheld the venerable abbot standing joyful, singing the divine praises, and taking each monk by the hand as they passed, as if it were to deliver them to the executioner. The Acts say he saw also a bright cross of fire shining over the bodies of the slain. Whether he had been before inclined to the Christian religion, or owed his conversion wholly to a sudden extraordinary light, he became on the spot a perfect Christian: and being moved by a strong impulse of divine grace, felt in himself an earnest desire to make one in that blessed company. [4] He therefore alighted from his horse, changed clothes with his servant, and whispered in the abbot’s ear, begging to be admitted into the happy number of his holy troop, as he was united with them in faith and desire. [5] The abbot assenting, he passed through his hands after the ninth, and was beheaded by the executioner, who did not know him. He was succeeded by the eleventh martyr. Last of all, the venerable Barsabias, the father of these martyrs, presented his neck to the executioner. [6]
The bodies of these twelve saints were left to be devoured by the wild beasts and birds of prey; but their heads were brought to the city, and set up in the temple of Nahitis, or Venus. For, though the Magians detested all idols, there were several sects of idolaters in many parts of Persia. The example of the Magian martyr moved his wife, children, and whole family zealously to profess the Christian faith. These martyrs suffered on the 3d day of June, in the third year of the great persecution of Sapor, the thirty-third of his reign, of Christ 342. St. Barsabias is commemorated both in the Greek Menologies and in the Roman Martyrology on the 11th of December. See the Chaldaic Acts of these martyrs, published by Monsignor Stephen Assemani, Acta Mart. Orient. t. 1. [6]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .Saint Abdecalas was a Persian priest of advanced age who, together with another priest, Saint Ananias, and about a hundred other Christians, was killed under the Persian ruler Shapur II on Good Friday, 345. One of these others was also named Abdecalas.
Odwulf of Evesham was a ninth century saint, monk and Frisian missionary.
Saint Maharsapor was an early Persian Christian martyr who is considered a saint. Different sources give his feast day as 10 October, 2 November or 27 November.
Saint Dabius was a 5th-century Irish missionary, possibly a disciple of Saint Patrick, who was active in Scotland, where several churches are named after him. His feast day is 22 July.
Saint John of Réôme was an early Christian abbot in what is now Moutiers-Saint-Jean in the Côte-d'Or department of France.
Saint Theuderius was a Christian monk, abbot and hermit. His feast day is 29 October.
The Martyrs of Persia under Shapur II were Christian martyrs who were put to death by Shapur II of Persia for failing to renounce their faith. There may have been several thousand in total. They are remembered as a group in the Roman and Orthodox calendars. The Roman Martyrology gives feast days of 6 April, 22 April and 9 May for different groups.
Saint Julian Sabas was a hermit who spent most of his life in deserted parts of Syria, but left his cell for a short period to denounce Arianism. His feast day is 14 January or 18 October in the Roman Church.
Saint Droctoveus was a Frankish abbot, the first abbot of what became Saint Germain-des-Pres in Paris.
Saints Leo and Paregorius were two early Christian martyrs at Patara (Lycia) in Anatolia. Their feast day is 18 February.
Saint Mommolin of Noyon was a monk who became an abbot in Saint-Omer, then Bishop of Noyon-Tournai in Belgium. His feast day is 16 October.
Saints Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers, were Persian martyrs during the persecutions of King Shapur II.
Saint Meneleus was a French monk who founded the Menat Abbey.
Saint Maccai was an Irish missionary who founded a monastery on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. His feast day is 11 April.
Saint Pior was an Egyptian monk and hermit in the desert of Scetis, one of the Desert Fathers, and a disciple of Anthony the Great. He lived to a great age. His feast day is 17 June.
Saint Liphardus was a 6th-century lawyer, hermit and abbot in Meung-sur-Loire near Orléans, France. His feast day is 3 June.
Saints Sapor, Isaac, Mahanes, Abraham, and Simeon were a group of Christians in Persia who were martyred under King Shapur II. Their feast day is 30 November.
Saints Daniel and Verda were Christian martyrs under King Shapur II of Persia. Their feast day is 21 February.
Saints Plutarch, Serenus, Heraclides, Heron, Serenus, Rhais, Potamiœna and Marcella were Christian martyrs in Egypt under the persecution of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. Their feast day is 28 June.
Saint Bain, a disciple of Saint Vandrille, was a bishop of Thérouanne in northwest France, and then abbot of the monastery of Saint Wandrille in Normandy. His feast day is 20 June.