ON SS. JAMES AND JOHN, BISHOP AND PRESBYTER, MARTYRS IN PERSIA,
PROBABLY ABOUT THE YEAR 345.
CommentaryJames, bishop, martyr in Persia. (S.)
John, presbyter, martyr in Persia. (S.)
G. V. H. & FROM MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS.
The memory of these martyrs is announced in the Roman Martyrology in the following words: In Persia, of the holy martyrs John, bishop, and James, presbyter, under King Sapor. They are mentioned by the Menologion of Sirleto, by Galesini, by Castellano, and by the Greek metrical martyrology:
Σὺν Ἰακώβῳ, τῷ θύτῃ Χριστοῦ, ξίφος Ἰωάννης ἤνεγκεν ὁ Χριστοῦ θύτης.
With you, James, faithful initiate of the Godhead, they cut down John, an initiate of God as well.
Of whom the Menologion of Basil, collated with the Milan codex D. 74. sup., page 41:
Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Ἰωάννου ἐπισκόπου,
καὶ Ἰακώβου πρεσβυτέρου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου ζηλωτοῦ adds ὅστις ἐλέγετο υἱὸς Μαρίας, qui dicebatur filius Mariæ. Οὗτοι ὑπῆρχον ἐπὶ Σαβωρίου τοῦ omits Περσῶν βασιλέως ἐν Περσιὶδ adds τῇ πόλει, in urbe. διδάσκοντες τὸν λόγον τῆς πίστεως, καὶ πολλοὺς ἐπιστρέφοντες ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον. Ἐν μιᾷ οὖν τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐθεάσατο ὁ ἐπίσκοπος Ἰωάννης καθ᾽ ὕπνους κατόναρ. ἄνδρα τινὰ δήμιον, κατέχοντα σπαθίον σπάθην. , ὅπερ ἥτις. ἐν τῷ ἄκρῳ εἶχε στέφανον στεφάνιον. . ὅστις δήμιος δραμὼν ἐπὶ πρὸς. τὸν ἐπίσκοπον ἐπέθηκεν ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ αὐτοῦ τὸν omits στέφανον omits εἰπών. Λάβε, ὧ ἐπίσκοπε, στέφανον στεφάνιον. οὗ [ὃ.] ἐπεθύμησας· καὶ μετ᾽ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας ἐκρατήθη κρατηθεὶς μετὰ τοῦ Ἰακώβου τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου, captus cum Jacobo presbytero. παρὰ τῶν ἀπίστων, καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ Ἰάκωβος, ὁ πρεσβύτερος (παρὰ τῶν ἀπίστων-πρεσβύτερος) omits, καὶ πολλὰ τιμωρηθέντες πρότερον καὶ διαφόροις βασάνοις προσομιλήσαντες, ὕστερον διὰ ξίφους ἐτελειώθησαν· εὐχαριστοῦντες Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν μέχρι θανάτου, ὅτι ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ θανεῖν παθεῖν. ἠξιωθησαν. Καὶ ἀπέβη τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ τὰ τοῦ ὀνείρου, ἀπολαβόντι τὸν στέφανον τῆς ἀφθάρτου ζωῆς (ἀπέβη-ζωῆς) omits. Ἐτάφησαν δὲ ἐντίμως ἐν ταὐτῷ ὑπὸ πιστῶν καὶ εὐλαβῶν ἀνδρῶν.
The contest of the holy martyrs John, bishop, and James, presbyter, surnamed Zelotes. These men, in the reign of Sapor king of the Persians, were teaching the word of faith in Persia and converting many from idols to the Lord. And on a certain day, when John the bishop had seen in his sleep an executioner running up to him and placing on his head a crown, which he was carrying on the tip of his sword, and saying these words to him: Receive, O bishop, the crown you have so greatly longed for, a few days later he was seized by the unbelievers, he and James the presbyter. They were first tried by various tortures, and then, cut down with the sword, they fell, giving thanks to the Lord our God to the very end for having been held worthy to meet death for him. And so there befell the bishop what he had seen in his sleep, when he obtained the crown of incorruptible life. And they were honorably buried in the same place by faithful and pious men.
Astonishing is this confusion of the Greeks, who from the surname of Zelotes, which he must be said to have drawn from the apostle of the same name, took this James for the kinsman of the Lord himself. The Menologion affirms that both martyrs suffered under Sapor [II], king of the Persians. Being uncertain of the year of the passion, I have nothing to affirm. I think nevertheless that both martyrs obtained the crown of the holy contest when the rage of the persecutor, letting Christian laymen go, was raging especially against teachers, that is, bishops and presbyters, about the year of Christ 345, which is the 6th of that same persecution and the 37th of Sapor, king of the Persians.
Stephen Evodius Assemani, in the first volume of the Acts of the Eastern Martyrs, rightly distinguishes this John the bishop, with his companion James the presbyter, from another John, a bishop, who was martyred with Narses, bishop of Sciahacardat in the province of Beth-Germaea, and his disciple Joseph and nineteen companions. See note 5, p. 102.