CONCERNING SAINT ABRAMIUS, OR ABRAHAMIUS, BISHOP OF ARBELA IN PERSIA, MARTYR.
In the year of Christ 348.
PrefaceAbrahamius, Bishop of Arbela, Martyr (S.)
By the author I. B.
[1] In the times of Constantine the Great, the religion of Christ was widely propagated, not only through the provinces of the Roman Empire but also to foreign nations. Concerning the Persians, the same Emperor testifies in a letter to King Sapor, which Eusebius recites in Book 4 of the Life of Constantine, chapters 9 and following, and Theodoret in Book 1 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 25: "By this class of men — I mean the Christians, for my entire discourse concerns them — how greatly do you think I rejoice to hear that the finest parts of Persia are, as I most earnestly wish, most abundantly adorned with them?" And then he carefully commends them to the King.
[2] When, however, in the course of time, as Sozomen writes in Book 2, chapter 8, their number had vehemently increased, so that they held public assemblies in churches and had Priests and Deacons, this greatly offended the minds of the Magi — for they, like a certain priestly tribe, administer the religion of the Persians by a kind of succession from the beginning. The Jews also were greatly disturbed, who, out of their jealousy naturally implanted in them, as it were, are always hostile to the Christian religion. By the instigation, therefore, of both these groups, a savage persecution was set in motion by King Sapor, who was then waging war against the Romans. First, all Christians indiscriminately were exhausted by tributes and harassed by the severity of the Prefects. "After this," says Sozomen, "he ordered the Priests and ministers of God to be slaughtered with the sword, the churches to be plundered, their treasures and ornaments to be brought into the public treasury, and Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, to be brought before him as a traitor of the Persian kingdom and religion." Concerning this persecution, Saint Jerome writes in his Chronicle at the seventh year of Constantius (the year 343 of the common era): "Sapor, King of the Persians, persecutes the Christians." By these words he does not expressly assert that the persecution first broke out at that time, yet this is more likely, since the first accusations of the Magi and Jews against Simeon, according to Sozomen's testimony, were that he was a friend of the Roman Emperor and that he betrayed Persian affairs to him. Therefore, war had already arisen between the Persians and the Romans, which we understand from Saint Jerome's Chronicle was begun in the first year of Constantius; for he writes that in that year Sapor, King of the Persians, having devastated Mesopotamia, besieged Nisibis for nearly two months. Baronius also determines, at the year 343, number 10, that the persecution was first stirred up by Sapor in the seventh year of Constantius and Constans.
[3] How bitter that persecution was, may be conjectured from these words of Sozomen in Book 2, chapter 13: "Scarcely," he says, "could one enumerate all the things that were done by those Martyrs — who they were, whence they came, by what means they achieved martyrdom, or what torments they endured; for these are various among the Persians, devised with a certain ambition of cruelty. But to speak summarily, it is reported that those whose names could be collected — men and women — numbered sixteen thousand who then completed their martyrdom. Besides these, so many were slaughtered that their number could not even be reckoned, much less their names enumerated, by the Persians, Syrians, and inhabitants of Edessa, who applied great diligence to the task."
[4] The most celebrated among them are: the already-mentioned Simeon, Usthazanes, Abedechalas, Ananias, Pusices, Azades, the Virgin Tarbula, and others, of whom we shall treat on April 21 and 22. Among the Bishops crowned with martyrdom in this persecution, besides Simeon, Sozomen enumerates twenty-two in Book 2, chapter 12 — among them Abrahamius, whom the Menaea record as having been "Bishop of Arbel, a city of Persia."
[5] In the Acts of Saints Acepsimas and his companions on April 22, mention is made of a certain cruel man "who was called Adesche and was born in the city called Arbel." He was ordered by the Judge to lead the holy Martyrs Joseph and Aithalas to his city, to be stoned to death by the ministry of the Christians there, and in this to prove his cleverness, forsooth. This is the city of which Quintus Curtius, in Book 4, speaking of Darius, says: "He had already reached Arbela, a village about to make itself notable by its great disaster." However, the same author later makes clear that the final battle between Darius and Alexander was not actually fought at Arbela, since he says that Darius, having covered a vast distance in flight, reached Arbela about midnight. Strabo, in Book 16, explains why the Greeks said the battle was fought at Arbela: "In Aturia there is a village called Gaugamela, at which Darius was defeated and lost his empire; therefore this place is notable, as is its name, for the word means 'the house of the camel'... The Macedonians, seeing that this village was insignificant, but that Arbela was a notable habitation — founded, as they say, by Arbelas the son of Athmoneus — spread the report that the battle and victory had taken place near Arbela, and transmitted this to the writers." Xylander translates: "Arbela, founded, as they say, by Arbelus, son of Athmoneus." To us, however, that founder seems rather to have been called Arbeles the Athmonite, or Athmonides. There is indeed in Stephanus the place Athmonon, with the gentile Athmoneus, a locality of the Cecropid region in Thrace.
[6] Arbela was therefore, in the time of Alexander, a "notable habitation" — a noteworthy town. It is no wonder that, since on account of the advantages of its location and the celebrity of its fame under the Macedonian empire, and then through the wars of the Parthians against the Romans and Syrians, it was perhaps enlarged, and having then received the Christian religion, it was honored with an episcopal throne. Saint Abrahamius held that throne, either as the first or certainly as the most celebrated Bishop. Under him there were many Christians at Arbela, by whose hands the impious wished Saints Joseph and Aithalas to be stoned, as is narrated in the Acts of those Saints and of Saint Acepsimas. The same Christians of Arbela were forbidden to bring any solace to the Saints who had been thrust into a foul prison. From the same city came that illustrious Isdandula, who, compelled to stone the Saints or to pierce them with a pointed rod attached to a reed, not only refused the cruel deed but castigated the Judges and lictors themselves with the most outspoken speech. From the same city, a pious woman, having purchased access to the prison by night from the guards, led the Saints to her house and, by whatever means she could with her servants, endeavored to refresh them and to alleviate their pains.
[7] But the holy Bishop Abrahamius himself — at whose instigation these acts were perhaps done, and at whose instruction certainly — also obtained the crown of martyrdom in the fifth year of the persecution, namely the year of Christ 347 or the beginning of 348. He is venerated by the Greeks on February 4. So the Menologion published by Henricus Canisius: "Likewise, of the holy Martyr Abrahamius the Persian." Petrus Galesinius: "In Persia, Saint Abramius, Bishop and Martyr, who, ordered by Sapor, King of the Persians, to sacrifice to the gods, and having firmly refused, was subjected to many and various punishments and was finally crowned by the cutting off of his head." The Menaea treat of him more fully. Ferrarius: "In Persia, Saint Abrahamius, Bishop and Martyr, under King Sapor. In the same place, Saint Abdalas, monk." He cites the Greek Menologion; in the edition published by Canisius, Abdalas is not mentioned on February 4, but Abidellas the Priest on April 17, who is called Abdellas in the Menaea.
[8] Cardinal Baronius, in volume 3 at the year 309, number 6, because Sapor the Younger raged against the Christians with such great cruelty, calls into question the Acts of Saint Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, which we gave on January 16. For in those Acts, chapter 3, it is said that at the request of Sapor, King of the Persians, Saint Cyriacus was sent to Persia, freed his daughter Iobia from a demon, and baptized her and her father and 420 others. But that was not Sapor the Great, or the Elder, who had long before been defeated by Odenathus, King of the Palmyrenes; since Narses, who reigned sixth after him, had been completely defeated by Diocletian himself. Nor was it the younger Sapor, grandson of Narses, who had not yet been born during the reign of Diocletian, much less was the father of an adult daughter. However, this does not have enough weight with us to recklessly reject those ancient Acts. That Sapor could have been some Satrap of the middle royal blood, or a petty king of a neighboring people or city. What if Mishdates, son of Narses, King of the Persians, was — like Narses' own predecessor Varahran Seganesna — a man with two names? What if Sapor's father was that Sapor converted by Saint Cyriacus, a son-in-law of Narses? This seems to be inferred from Agathias, who testifies that Sapor was inaugurated as king while still in his mother's womb, when the Satraps had previously learned from the responses of the Magi that the child would be male. "For," says that writer, "the succession of the royal line called him to the throne who should be born of this mother." He was not, however, the posthumous son of Mishdates, since his successor was Artaxerxes, his full brother, as the same author says — and therefore younger than him; otherwise, he would have had to be placed on the throne before Sapor, who was not yet born. Since, therefore, it is established from Eutropius, Book 9, that Narses was the grandfather of Sapor, Sapor may have been born of his daughter, perhaps by a Christian father named Sapor — and thus the friendship of Constantine may have been sought by him, and the Christian cause, favored by him, may have been advanced while his son was still too young to hold the reins of government.
[9] But Agathias blunders egregiously when he writes in Book 4 that in the twenty-fourth year of Sapor the city of Nisibis came under Persian power, upon Jovian's surrender after Julian's sudden death. If Julian perished and Jovian was compelled to negotiate with the Persians in the twenty-fourth year of Sapor, then Sapor was born in the year of Christ 339, the third year of Constantius. By what reasoning, then, did the same Sapor devastate Mesopotamia and besiege that same Nisibis in the year 338, and before that send legates to Constantine the Great, who died in 337? Before he was born? Agathias would have written better had he said that this happened in the twenty-fourth year of the war undertaken against the Romans. But enough of these matters.
[10] Petrus Teixeira, in Book 1 on the Kings of Persia, chapter 24, calls this Sapor "Xapur," but says he has found nothing worthy of report about him, and says he was raised to the throne seventy-three years after the death of Alexander of Macedon — omitting the Greek Kings and the Parthians, as well as the first eight of the Persian race. He writes that Ardxir Baba Khon succeeded him — who is the Artaxerxes of Agathias; then Xapur Zabel Ketaf, that is, Sapor the son of Artaxerxes; then Baharon Kermonxa, that is, Varahran Cermasal; and after him his son Yazd Gerd, who is Isdigirdes. But what this author says — that Christ was born in the times of Ardxir Baba Khon — is plainly very far from the truth. He professes, however, that he transmits what he found written among the Persians about their Kings, not that he wishes to confirm and defend it. But let us return to Saint Abrahamius, whose Life the Greeks relate briefly in their Menaea.
LIFE FROM THE GREEK MENAEA.
Abrahamius, Bishop of Arbela, Martyr (S.)
In the fifth year of the most wicked and impious persecution launched against the Christians in Persia, Saint Abrahamius was seized by the chief of the Magi. When he was urged by him to deny Christ and worship the Sun, he said: "How is it, wretch and miserable one, that you do not cease exhorting us to do what is not fitting? Is it right that I should abandon the Creator and worship the creature and the work of my God?" These words considerably provoked the tyrant against the Saint. Therefore, the chief of the Magi ordered the Saint to be immediately brought forward, laid upon the ground, and beaten with rods from the wild forest. When the Archmagus saw that he bore all things nobly, and even prayed for his torturers, saying: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them, for they do not know what they are doing," he ordered his head to be cut off with a sword. Thus, with his neck severed, Saint Abrahamius completed his martyrdom in the village called Telman.