ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
DESAS THE BISHOP, MARIABUS THE PRESBYTER, ABDIESUS, AND 270 OTHERS OF BEZABDE,
SLAIN IN PERSIA UNDER SAPOR.
AFTER THE YEAR 355.
CommentaryDesas the Bishop, of Bezabde, Martyr in Persia, under King Sapor (St) Mariabus the Presbyter, of Bezabde, Martyr in Persia, under King Sapor (St) Abdiesus, of Bezabde, Martyr in Persia, under King Sapor (St) The other 270, of Bezabde, Martyrs in Persia, under King Sapor (SS)
G. H.
The Greeks in their Menaia, both handwritten and printed, and in the great Bishop of Kythera, and in the Paris manuscript Synaxarion of the College of Clermont, celebrate the Martyrs proposed in the title, with these words almost everywhere: "On the same day, namely April 9, the contest of the holy Martyrs, who, led captive into Persia, suffered death for Christ. Sapor King of the Persians, The city of Bezabde intercepted. in the fifty-third year of his reign, having undertaken an expedition into the region of the Romans, intercepted the city called Bezabde; and whomever he found in it armed, or able to bear arms, he slaughtered: but he left the rest of the unarmed crowd, with women, old men, and children—also Bishop Heliodorus, the presbyters Desas and Mariabus, with all the clergy—safe in their country. And after Bishop Heliodorus had died, But after some time had followed, Heliodorus the Bishop, being about to die, ordained the presbyter Desas bishop in his place. Therefore, after the customary praises and prayers had been offered to God from that same Church, a certain Adelphar the Archmage informed King Sapor, [three hundred from the clergy and people led into Persia are crowned with martyrdom, except 25.] that the Christians who had been left by him, with Desas as their prelate, mocked and assailed with insults the King and his cult and religion. By Sapor's command three hundred men were led away into Persia. When they could by no force be compelled to worship the sun and fire, they were beheaded, except for twenty-five who, loving life more than eternal salvation, ran to Sapor and obeyed him. But of the rest one, Abdiesus is afterwards killed. named Abdiesus, having received a non-lethal blow and not being extinguished with the others, began again, as before, to proclaim the word of God with free voice and generous spirit. Some impious fellow took him away with his sword, and he was by no means unwilling, since he had grieved that he had been separated from his fellow Martyrs and left alive." So says the Menaion, in which the Martyrs themselves are honored by this distich:
Εἰς πυρολατρῶν γῆν ἔαθλει Περσίδα Ἡ Χριστολατρῶν ἀυχενοτμήτος φάλαγξ. is praised in the Menaia,
With severed neck, the phalanx of the worshippers of Christ Contended in Persia, the land of the fire-worshippers.
There is added separately another distich concerning Saint Abdiesus, who, although he is venerated together with them, yet did not attain the palm of martyrdom at the same time. They are these verses:
Ὢν αἰχμάλωτος Ἀβδιησοῦς τὴν τύχην, Ἠλευθερώθη τὴν σφαγὴν διδοὺς λύτρον.
The captive Abdiesus, to be made free From that fate, gave his throat as ransom.
The same Martyrs slain in Persia are celebrated in the Menologium of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, and in the Menologies. but the narration is somewhat cut short, and no mention is made of Abdiesus. In the Menologium of Sirletus they are honored with this elogium: "On the same day the commemoration of the holy captive Martyrs, crowned with martyrdom in Persia." The year indicated above—the fifty-third year of Sapor's reign—is connected in Theophanes's Chronography with the nineteenth year of the Emperor Constantius, Time of martyrdom. and therefore with the year 355 of the Christian era, when Bezabde, or Bezades—a city, so far as we can gather, of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates—was intercepted by Sapor. But these Martyrs seem to have been crowned after some years had passed from that city's calamity, while Sapor was still living, whose last year of reign is said to have been the year 380 of the Christian era.