ON ST. CLAUDIANUS THE PERSIAN,
MARTYR IN MESOPOTAMIA.
IN THE FOURTH OR SEVENTH CENTURY
CommentaryClaudianus the Persian, Martyr in Mesopotamia (St.)
G. H.
Mesopotamia and Assyria are illustrious provinces of the East, separated by the river Tigris, which is the boundary of the Roman and Persian Empires. Hence Assyria formerly belonged to the idolatrous Persians, and Mesopotamia to the Christians, Nisibis famous for the Christian faith, adorned with various episcopal cities. Among these Nisibis had St. James as Bishop, an illustrious champion of the Christian faith against the Arians in the Council of Nicaea and elsewhere: whose distinguished deeds shall be set forth on July 15. There under Julian suffered St. Dometius, Persian monk, to whom the seventh day of August is sacred. Julian was succeeded by Jovian, who, in order to restore the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, it was left to Sapor, King of the Persians: ratified peace with Sapor, King of the Persians, for thirty years, and conceded the very great city of Nisibis, which looked to the safety of the remaining population in Mesopotamia, to the Persians, in the year of Christ 363. Consult Theophanes and others. The first persecution was stirred up under Isdegerd, King of the Persians, when Abdaas, the persecution was stirred under Isdegerd. Bishop of the Persian royal city, with misguided zeal had set fire to a temple sacred to fire. Then many Christians were given over to slaughter, and many fled to the Romans, whose declared piety toward those they helped we have recounted from Socrates in the Life of St. Atticus, Bishop of Constantinople, on January 8, no. 30. whether then St. Claudianus fell
[2] In this persecution, with all circumstances weighed, we judge that St. Claudianus the Persian could have been crowned with the palm of martyrdom. This is supported by the four thousand six hundred monks living in some monastery of Mesopotamia, and Barsabanas, Prefect of the city of Nisibis. We found the eulogy of this Martyr for the 5th of April in the illustrious Menaea manuscripts preserved in the Ambrosian library at Milan, and in two codices of Turin belonging to the Duke of Savoy, which we here give in Latin.
[3] The Martyrdom of Saint Claudianus. He was born of Persia, and by his forebears had been taught the Christian faith. a Persian, When, having reached thirty years of age, he had heard from the Sacred Gospel these words: "He who does not forsake father a monk, or mother or wife or children or possessions cannot be my disciple"; filled with the Holy Spirit he left all, and departing to a monastery became a monk. When afterwards he had been exercised vigorously in sacred disciplines, he desired also to consecrate his life to God through martyrdom. Wherefore when a persecution had arisen against the Christians, and the monks who lived with him had migrated elsewhere, he alone remained. Therefore captured, he is questioned about the four thousand six hundred monks, and is brought before Barsabanas, prefect of the city of Nisibis: by whom, ordered to worship the sun, he refused to obey, but with great constancy professed himself a Christian. He is therefore handed over to ten soldiers: having suffered grievous tortures, by whom he was dislocated by the violent stretching of both his hands, his shoulders being moved from their place. Then he is beaten with clubs, and dragged along the ground by twenty soldiers, bound by his genital parts. And when he still stood constant in professing the Christian faith, his belly is pounded with many stones; then his loins and other parts of the body below the breasts are cut with knives: and finally his head is cut off with the sword.
[4] So far that eulogy: which we having here transcribed, we find in the Life of St. Anastasius the Persian, published by us on January 22 from Latin MSS., that he was brought at Caesarea in Palestine to a certain Barzabanas, whether perhaps under Chosroes: or, as in the Greek Acts is held, Marzabanas, under Chosroes, King of the Persians, in the seventh century of Christ. If, from other monuments found elsewhere, it seems that St. Claudianus rather suffered in that persecution than in the earlier one, we do not wish to oppose.