Isbozetes

ON ST. ISBOZETES, MARTYR IN PERSIA,

IN THE YEAR 553

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Isbozetes, martyr in Persia. (S.)

BY P. P.

[1] By the epigram of Menander Protector Among the sentences which he collected from Menander Protector, Constantine Porphyrogenitus inserted this little narrative:

Greek text only in the Acta; the English here is translated from the Greek.

Ὅτι ὁ ἱστορικός φησι Μένανδρος περὶ Ἰσαοζίτου τοῦ ἐν Περσίδι σταυρωθέντος· “Ἐγὼ δὲ πυθόμενος καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα ἐσότι ἀγασθεὶς ἐν νῷ ἐβαλόμην ὡς καὶ ἄξιον τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ θεραπευτῇ τῷ βαρβάρῳ ἐν ἑξαμέτρῳ ἐπίγραμμα λέξαι· καὶ δὴ λέλεκταί μοι τὸ ἐπίγραμμα ὧδε·

That the historian Menander says concerning Isaozites, who was crucified in Persia: "And I, having learned of this and admiring the man exceedingly, resolved in my mind, as being fitting for the barbarian servant of God, to compose an epigram in hexameter; and indeed the epigram has been composed by me thus:

ἦν πάρος ἐν Πέρσῃσιν ἐγὼ μάγος Ἰσαοζίτης εἰς ὀλοὴν ἀπάτην ἐλπίδας ἐκκρεμάσας. εὖτε δὲ πυρσὸς ἔδαπτεν ἐμὴν πόλιν, ἦλθον ἀρῆξαι, ἦλθε δὲ καὶ Χριστοῦ πανσθενέος θεράπων. κείνῳ δ᾽ ἐσβέσθη δύναμις φλογός, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔμπης νικηθεὶς νικὴν ἤνυσα θειοτέρην.

Formerly I was a magus among the Persians, Isaozites, hanging my hopes on ruinous deceit. But when fire was devouring my city, I came to help; and there came also a servant of all-powerful Christ. By him the power of the flame was quenched; and yet, though conquered, I achieved a more divine victory.

Ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς Ἰσαοζίτης, παραινούντων αὐτὸν ἐσταυρωμένον ὄντα ἐς τὰ πάτρια μεταθεῖναι νόμιμα καὶ σώζεσθαι, ἔφη μεταμελεῖσθαι οὐχ ὅτι ἐς τοῦτο ἔγνω σωτηρίας ἐλθεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι ἔγνω ὀψέ.

That the same Isaozites, when they urged him, as he hung crucified, to change over to the ancestral customs and be saved, said that he repented, not that he had resolved to come to this salvation, but that he had resolved late.

Ταῦτα ἔλεγε γλιχόμενος κατὰ τὸ ἀπαραίτητόν τε καὶ καρτερὸν τῶν οὐρανίων ἐκ τῶν παλαιῶν στεφάνων τὰ ἀκήρατα ἀναδεῖσθαι νικητήρια, καὶ ἠξίου τὸ βραχὺ καὶ ἀνόνητον τοῦ βίου ἑκοντὶ ἀποτίθεσθαι ἐπὶ ῥητῷ μισθῷ τινι τοῦ διαβιῶναι ἐς ἀεί [Excerpta historica iussu imp. Constantini Porphyrogeniti confecta. Vol. IV. Excerpta de sententiis ed. Ursulus Phil. Boissevain (Berlin, 1906), p. 22; cf. Historici graeci minores, ed. Ludov. Dindorfius (Leipzig, 1871), p. 71.]."

These things he said, longing, in keeping with the inexorable and steadfast character of the heavenly ones, to be crowned with the unsullied prizes of victory from among the ancient crowns, and he thought it right willingly to lay aside the short and profitless span of life on a stated wage, namely of living for ever."

Menander's epigram was also taken up by the Palatine Anthology, in which, however, the metre being preserved, the name of the holy martyr is written in another and indeed better form, Ἰσβοζήτης [Anthologia Graeca epigrammatum Palatina cum Planudea, ed. H. Stadtmueller, vol. I (Leipzig, 1894), pp. 26–27.]. How much this testimony is to be valued will appear more clearly from what follows; they are brilliantly confirmed but there will be no one who does not perceive at first sight how aptly it confirms the sum of the events which are related in the Passion of the holy martyr. The Acts of St. Isbozetes. That Passion survives, indeed, written in the Armenian style [= Lives and Passions of the saints, vol. II (Venice, 1874), pp. 124–30.], in which there is no lack of indications of a Syriac origin, which will be explored below. From an Armenian exemplar, not unlike the one we now read, there flowed a Georgian version, which Alexander Khakhanov recently edited according to an old codex of Athos in fasc. XXXI (Moscow, 1910), pp. 51–57.. The shorter Passion, or rather elogium, which Gregory Dserents inserted into the Armenian synaxarion in the fifteenth century [= Synaxarion, 2nd ed. (Constantinople, 1730), pp. 389–90.], it will be enough to have mentioned in this place. To the former booklet assuredly go back the mentions of St. Isbozetes which occur from time to time in the histories or annals of the Armenians from the 9th century. Now let us see what can be dug out of these monuments.

§ I. On the history of St. Isbozetes.

[2] The saint's age, fatherland, name. Isbozetes was born a few years before Chosroes I Anošarvan, son of Cabades, succeeded to his father's kingdom See below nos. 8 and 12.. His fatherland was a village of Mesopotamia in the territory of Pirisabora [This is the Peroz Sābur of the Persians, called Pirisabora by the Latins (Ammianus Marcellinus, 24, 2, 9; 5, 3; ed. Gardthausen, Leipzig, 1875), but by the Greeks Βηρσαβῶρα (Zosimus, 3, 9, ed. Bekker, Bonn, 1837), a town on the bank of the Euphrates, the same which was afterwards called by the Syrians and Arabs Anbar. Th. Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari (Leiden, 1879), p. 57, note 5. For Pirisabora John the Catholicos (see below, note 10) wrongly understood the city of Bīhšābur, , in Persia properly so called; cf. I. B. Chabot, Synodicon Orientale, in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque Nationale, vol. XXXVII, pp. 322–23, 332, note 3, and elsewhere. On the city of Bih-Šābur see also Anal. Boll., vol. XLII, S. Démétrianus d'Antioche.], which was called Qunarastan [So too in John the Catholicos, whose testimony see below, note 10. In the Georgian version: , knarastani. The name is not without a certain suspicious likeness to , "tomb" or "κοιμητήριον”." And the name Anbar, which was the other name of Pirisabora, with the particle most usual among the Syrians prefixed, comes very close to the word , which likewise means tomb. Cf. N. Marr, , vol. XX (1911), pp. 064–066. It is not altogether improbable that the Armenian writer was deceived by the sound of the word.]. By his pagan name he was called Machoš (Maḫoš), otherwise Mahoš See below, no. 20., and more usually, as it seems, Machož (Maḫož) [The form of this name is clearly confirmed by John the Catholicos († 828), whose testimony it is worth while to recite here in full: I. B. Emin, [= the History of Armenia of John the Catholicos of Draschanakert, Moscow, 1853, pp. 37–38]. In his (Narses's) time Machož (Maḫož), who was from the region of Bešapuh, the village of Qunarasṭan, by race a magus and from the holy font (var. Gospel), had been called in baptism Isbozetes (Jisztbuziṭ), which is translated saved by God (Sositheus), having suffered very many torments, is crowned with martyrdom by the marzban Všnasn Vahram in the city of Dubion, dying for Christ. (For the rest see below, no. 15, p. 199.) Cf. also Samuel of Ani, ed. Têr-Miqelian, = the collections of histories of Samuel, priest of Ani, Vaḡaršapat, 1893, pp. 74–75; Cyriacus of Gandzak, = Compendium of history, Venice, 1865, p. 624. On the Georgian form of the name see below.], which you would believe was transcribed in Armenian letters for .

He had taken his origin from a priestly family, and as a boy had learned the disciplines of the magi, Devoted to the superstition of the magi, in which, being of a keen and shrewd mind, he was held most expert. It happened by chance that on account of some business he came "to the camp of the king", namely when the king himself was leading a military expedition through Babylonia. There he was present at the execution of a certain man named Gregory, he is present at the martyrdom of St. Gregory of Rai. who bravely met death for the name of Christ. Who that martyr was is not indicated more openly in our Acts. But it is established from elsewhere that by Chosroes son of Cabades, when he was setting out to war through Babylonia, not far from Pirisabora, Gregory Manaǧirh (or Manaǧihr) of Rai was condemned to death, whom the Syrians commonly call by the Persian name Gregory Pirangušnasp. Of him there is a shorter Passion written in the Armenian language [BHO. 354; ed. Galust Têr-Mkrttšian, = Gregory Manaǧirh, of Rai, of the family of Mihran, in Ararat, 1901, pp. 478–74.], in which he is said to have been killed by Chosroes II son of Hormisdas, who reigned from the year 590 to the year 627. But the histories and annals of the Armenians, almost all as many as mention our St. Isbozetes, report the death of St. Gregory Manaǧirh in the same places: which certainly did not happen by chance. Any doubt, however slight it may be, is entirely removed by the Syriac Acts of St. Gregory, where these things are read [Ed. P. Bedjan, Histoire de Mar Jabalaha, de trois autres patriarches, d'un prêtre et de deux laïques nestoriens (Paris, 1895), pp. 347–94; cf. G. Hoffmann, Auszüge aus syrischen Akten persischer Märtyrer, in Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. VII, pp. 78–86.].

[3] The origin, course of life Namely, before he had forsworn the superstition of the Persians and been called Gregory in baptism, he was Pirangušnasp, of the family of Mihran of Rai, prefect of Chorzanene and Albania, a man distinguished by nobility and most famous for military glory. He, after various fortunes, was thrown into chains by Chosroes son of Cabades when the king returned from the Lazic war [Bedjan, op. cit., pp. 367–68. Chosroes, having stormed the town of Petra, made a truce with the Lazi in the autumn of the year 541. F. Justi, Geschichte Irans, in W. Geiger and E. Kuhn, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, vol. II, 3 (1897), p. 534.], in the year after the overthrow of Antioch [In the month of June of the year 540. Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 165, note 2. Cf. F. Justi, Geschichte Irans, op. cit., p. 534. However the chronology of the Acts of St. Gregory may resist, what St. Iesusabran the martyr († 620) is said to have told his disciple is probably to be referred to him: that he would be fifteen years in chains, like blessed Gregory. "Who this lord Gregory was," says Iesuiab the patriarch in the history of St. Iesusabran, "neither did his disciple ask, nor did he himself say of his own accord." J. B. Chabot, Histoire de Jésus-Sabran, par Jésus-yab d'Adiabène, in Nouvelles archives des Missions scientifiques, vol. VII (1897), p. 568.]. In the month of November of this year he was thrust back into a suburb to the east of Ctesiphon whose name was Zqartā dbēth Balan, Bedjan, op. cit., pp. 369–70.. At the beginning of spring of the following year Chosroes again made war on the Roman empire:

After five months the king set out with his army to make war on the Romans. Having gone out, then, from the Cities, he entered on the road which leads through the desert to Pirisabora, to the city of the Saracens, and pitched camp in the village which is called Dana; departing from there, about the fourth parasang [The text: one parasang of land, which is inept both by itself and in the context. Four parasangs were about one day's journey.], he went on further and pitched camp in that place. and end. While he was staying there, in the sixth week of the great fast, there met him a prince named Mihran, a cousin of Gregory, who, on the counsel and opinion of the magi, most vehemently demanded of Chosroes that he punish Gregory with death. Overcome by his importunity, the king ordered the captive to be sent to him. And so Gregory was led away to the army on the Monday of Holy Week, while meanwhile Chosroes had continued his journey. Ibid., pp. 383–384..

The king, setting out from his station, went off and placed his camp before the village which is called Danahrit, beside which lay a great royal fortress. Here the martyr, brought on the Friday of the Preparation, was struck with the sword on the same day. You see how aptly these things agree with our Passion, which narrates that the young Machož, an inhabitant of Pirisabora, in the reign of Chosroes, when he had come by chance to the royal camp, was present at the martyrdom of a certain Gregory.

[4] Isbozetes, by divine warning, drawn to the Christian religion These things, further, were done on 18 April of the year 542 [No credence at all is owed to the Armenian Passion in which St. Gregory is said to have died in the fifteenth year of the reign of Chosroes son of Hormisdas, king of the Persians, which was the year 604/605, or 545/546 if, a manifest error either of the scribe or of the hagiographer himself being corrected, for Chosroes son of Hormisdas (Chosroes II) there is read Chosroes son of Cabades (Chosroes I). However the matter stands, Gregory Managirh must have met death some time before the year 547–48. For in this year, which was the seventeenth of Chosroes, a church or chapel in his name had already been founded at Dubion. Cf. below no. 4, and N. Akinian, in Handes Amsorya, vol. XXI (1907), p. 317; who judges that St. Gregory of Rai was killed in the year 541–542.]. Machož did not behold the most brave example of the martyr in vain. On the following night, admonished by a wonderful dream, he began to have doubts about the Persian religion. And so, fleeing from his home and fatherland, he migrated to the land of Sunitis [Which in Armenian was called Siuniq, in the northern part of Greater Armenia, to the east, between the river Cyrus and the Araxes. The Sunitae, whom Procopius distinguishes from the Persarmenians (De bello Persico, I, 15, ed. Haury, vol. I, Leipzig, 1905, p. 74), a people using its own language or dialect, he calls of this age

the Syrian writer who is commonly called Zacharias, bishop of Mitylene, and Zacharias the rhetor. Ecclesiastical History, book XII, ch. 7, ed. E. W. Brooks, Corpus scriptor. christ. orient. Scr. Syri, textus, ser. 3, vol. VI (1921), p. 214; in English: F. J. Hamilton and E. W. Brooks, The Syriac Chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene (London, 1899), p. 338. Cf. H. Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, in Indogermanische Forschungen, vol. XVI (1904), pp. 237–38.], where he found the opportunity of listening to [ which seems to be understood properly; see below, no. 10, with the notes, p. 195, note 18.] the Christian doctrine. Not long after, he crossed into the province of Aïrarat [From the Georgian version: into the land of Ararat. On the origin of this name, which is to be plainly distinguished from Aïrarat, Anal. Boll., vol. XXXVIII, pp. 322–27.] and settled at Dubion [In Armenian Dovin; in Greek Δούβιον. Menander, Excerpta de sententiis, 38; ed. Boissevain, op. cit., p. 24; but in Procopius Δούβιος, with the name not inflected in its cases; cf. De Bello Persico, II, 30, ἐν τοῖς ἀμφὶ Δούβιος χωρίοις. Haury, op. cit., p. 301. Cf. M. Streck, Encyclopédie de l'Islām, 17th instalment (Paris, 1913), p. 1119. We have preferred the form which is nearer to the Armenian.], at that time the most flourishing metropolis of the Armenians [From about the middle of the 5th century the catholicoi of the Armenians had settled at Dubion.]. he settles in the town of Dubion, Dubion was, moreover, as it were a common emporium to which merchants flocked from India, Iberia and all Persia [Procopius, De Bello Persico, II, 25; Haury, op. cit., pp. 263–64; cf. L. Alishan, Aïrarat (Venice, 1890), pp. 404–414.]. among the Huzaïni There long before a colony of Huzaïnian traders had immigrated, which in the year 554, on Palm Sunday, Narses of Astarak, catholicos of the Armenians, complained in a synodical letter favoured the Nestorians, adding thus [= Book of Letters, Tiflis, 1901, pp. 72–73; cf. above, p. 192, note 9.]: in which (error) the parts of the Huzaïni were entangled, from where certain people had previously crossed into our region and were trading with our fathers and with us, joined with our church and professing themselves of the same faith with us. (But) in the seventeenth year of Chosroes, king of kings Of Christ 447–448; see below no. 14, p. 198., Nihoracan being prefect of the frontier [Marzpan, or marzapan. Of the name and of the office it will be spoken below, no. 8.], they founded a certain building in the name of Manadsir of Rai, devotees of St. Gregory. who, having become a believer in Christ and been baptized, received the name Gregory and was killed for the Christian faith; which place they afterwards called the seat of their impure assembly. Thus far Narses the catholicos, who, going on further, relates that the chapel of St. Gregory was destroyed by him. Narses's statement, at the end of the 13th century, is echoed with inert faith by Stephen Orbelian, metropolitan of Sunitis, writing to Gregory, catholicos of Armenia, in these words: [= Stephen, bishop of Sunitis, history of the house of Sunitis, ch. LXVIII, ed. I. B. Emin (Moscow, 1861), p. 332; cf. M. Brosset, Histoire de la Siounie par Stéphannos Orbélian (Saint Petersburg, 1864), p. 252.]: Again (there was held) a synod at Dubion, in the days of Narses the catholicos, concerning the definition of Chalcedon and the heresy of Nestorius, which (had settled) in the polluted monastery of Gregory Manažihr: at this was present the blessed metropolitan of Sunitis Peter, disciple of Moses, father of the grammarians [Stephen certainly errs about the years of Bishop Peter and of the first synod of Dubion, by our leave, since these things do not pertain to the present question; cf. Brosset, loc. cit., note 2.]. When Stephen recites these things, in reality we hear Narses alone speaking. Come now, for exploring the origin and credibility of the history in which we are engaged, the very charges which the Monophysite man hurls against the Huzaïnian residents of the city of Dubion are not without their weight, as will be indicated below See no. 15.. Setting these aside for a little, it must now be kept before our eyes that at the same time at which our Machož came to Dubion, there existed in this town a certain offshoot of the Persian church, living by its native rite apart from the Armenians, in which St. Gregory of Rai was venerated with a certain special honour. Assuredly this could have been the reason why Machož, a fugitive from his fatherland, settled at Dubion among his fellow countrymen, at the memorial of the holy martyr by whom he had first been drawn to the Christian faith.

[5] The credibility of the Acts is commended by what is touched on He did not yet, however, openly profess this faith. The Acts add that he was held in the number of the magi by a certain hamacar of Armenia whose name was Chosroes Peroz (§2), The man's name is read in no other place that we know of. Nor is the title of his office much better known. For it should be read. You would believe , hamarakar, by which word the auditors of the treasury, or collectors of tributes, seem to have been called [H. Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, vol. I (Leipzig, 1895), p. 178; cf. A. Christensen, L'Empire des Sassanides. Le peuple, l'état, la cour, in Det Kongelige Danske videnskabernes Selskabs skrifter, 7th ser., vol. I (1909), p. 22.]. But not few nor slight reasons stand against this emendation. The name hamakar is written three times in the same form in the Passion. It was rendered with the same letters by Cyriacus of Gandzak, who had read it in our Acts [= Historical epitome, Venice, 1865, p. 24.]. In the Georgian version, indeed, such as it is presented to us, the word , hamarcari, occurs once, but in the two others the gloss hamacar is reproduced very similarly in Georgian characters. Since these things are so, one may scarcely, very scarcely, suspect an error of the scribes. Add that from the narrative itself there seems to be designated a magistrate of a higher order than a collector of tributes or a fiscal inquisitor. Until, therefore, light shines from elsewhere, the interpretation is to be drawn from the etymology of the word hamacar, which in Armenian signifies "equal or like in power". on the magistrates of the Persians, Hence perhaps it can be conjectured that to the satrap, or, to use the words of our hagiographer, the chiliarch, who was the military leader of Armenia, there was joined a civil magistrate, as a colleague with equal power, in almost the same way as in the four greater provinces of the kingdom, from the age of Chosroes, two prefects had been established, one the leader of the army (aspahbēdh), with whom was the supreme military command, the other civil (pādhghospān), who administered the other affairs of the people and the region [Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 151, note 2; Christensen, op. cit., pp. 41–42; cf. N. Adontz, p. 215 ff., who judges that this had been established a long time before Chosroes.]. Assuredly the name hamacar fits aptly that colleague of the military prefect: which we, for want of a better word, shall call σύναρχον [It comes to the same thing as what Brosset noted on Cyriacus of Gandzak, Deux historiens arméniens. Kiracos de Gandzac, XIIIe s., Oukhtanès d'Ourha, Xe s. (Petrograd, 1871), p. 21, note 7.]. Nor does it stand in the way that no mention of this office has hitherto been found outside the history of St. Isbozetes. For there are many things in the affairs and histories of those times which have not become known by more certain testimony.

[6] on the feasts, After some time — so the Acts continue — in winter, at the beginning of the month Mehecan, it happened that the Persians were celebrating a sacrifice. In the interval of time with which we are now dealing, the Armenian month Mehecan began on the tenth or eleventh day of January. But since the Persian months wandered through the solar year by no very certain law, it is not easy, for us at least, to divine what solemnity of the magi is here signified by the hagiographer. The epithet by which he calls it is not a word but a riddle. Yet there may be compared here what is read in the Arabic astrologer Bīrūni: that at the beginning of the Persian month ādhār-māh there occurred the feast , or "of the fox" [Chronologie orientalischer Völker von Albêrûnî, ed. Ed. Sachau (Leipzig, 1878), p. 225.], perhaps the same which today is called rapithvan by the Parsis of India and, before it was moved from its place, was a prelude to the approaching spring [D. Ménant, Les Parsis, in Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. VII (1898), p. 109. Rapithvan seems to be compared with rapithvā "midday" (Chr. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg, 1904, col. 1509), but in the mouth of the people it could easily be twisted to raopay, whence the Syriac , "fox" (cf. Bartholomae, ibid., col. 1496).]. The same Bīrūni, following the author Irānšahri, testifies that the day of the "Fox" was known to the Armenians in Persia Loc. cit.. It may not, therefore, be asked rashly whether for perhaps should be written , "fox", so that from an absurd gloss there may arise a usual name congruent with the history. If, however, this conjecture seems too bold, we should say that some one of the solemnities of the Persians which are frequently mentioned in the hagiographical booklets has been inaccurately signified. From the very Syriac Passion of St. Gregory Manaǧirh (Pirangušnasp) it is known that the feast fordiḡān, most hateful to the Christians, was at that time held during the month of March [Passion of Gregory Pirangušnasp: (Bedjan, op. cit., p. 315), in the month ādār (March), when the feast had come which the magi keep to Satan and call (the day) of the manes. See what Hoffmann learnedly discussed about this passage, Auszüge, p. 79, note 720. It is useful also to compare the Passion of St. Eustathius of Mtskheta, from which it seems to be gathered that in the year 541 the spring solemnity of the Persians fell near the Easter of the Christians (31 March, 19 Ahecan). Sabinin, (Petrograd, 1882), p. 313; in German Dschawachoff (Ǧavachov), Sitzungsberichte der königl. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1901), p. 877. On which passage, Harnack, loc. cit., note 2.], whose tenth day or thereabouts was at that age the beginning of the Armenian month Ahecan: who would deny that this name could easily have been interchanged with Mehecan? Nearer still perhaps to what we are seeking is naurūz, ; which was then likewise customarily celebrated in the month of March, and in Persia indeed on the second day, but in Media on the twentieth Jerusalem Talmud, 'Abōda Zāra, I, 2 (in Hoffmann, loc. cit. p. 79)., that is, about the twentieth day of the month Areg or the tenth of Hecan. Whichever custom the magi sojourning at Dubion had kept, under the Armenian sky the feast of naurūz could there be called wintry, although by its institution it inaugurated the beginning of spring [If the already mentioned mathematician Bīrūni is to be trusted, the feast of naurūz had been instituted at the winter solstice, but in the course of the centuries, from an error of the astrologers, it began to be postponed, so that at the end of the tenth century it fell at the beginning of spring, op. cit., pp. 215–17. This transfer, by which the man most learned for his age asserts that the rite of the feast itself was in some way perverted, he judges to have arisen from the fact that the Persians intercalary years

did not observe (op. cit., p. 215): which cause, if it were true, the feast of naurūz ought not to have been postponed but anticipated. Moreover, from the testimonies which we reported above it is established that between the middle of the sixth century and the end of the tenth century the solemnity of naurūz was fixed.].

[7] at a ritual gathering at Dubion Amid these solemnities, then, a sacrifice was celebrated in the house or palace () of the "synarch". Again the truth of the history strikes the eyes here. For in the town of Dubion there had once existed a fire temple, which two Armenian princes, deserters of the Christian faith, had built John the Catholicos, ed. Emin, p. 35.; but this was destroyed by fire by the most valiant leader of the Armenians, Vahan Mamikonian, when he had taken the city John the Catholicos, loc. cit. He, after many battles successfully fought against the Persians, won from Vlases, who, on the death of his brother Peroz, had obtained the kingdom in the year 484, among the conditions of peace, that the fire temples should be removed from the land of Armenia Lazarus of Pharp, [ = History of Armenia, Venice, 1891, ch. 89, 93; pp. 558, 592.]. From that time there were no public shrines of the magian superstition in Persarmenia, although Cabades seems to have wished to restore them against his pledged word. Not by a far-fetched mark of truth, then, does our hagiographer win credence when he brings in the magi of the city of Dubion performing sacred rites not in a fire-temple or some religious building but in the house of a magistrate. And how aptly the description of the ceremonies themselves agrees with the testimonies of the historians will be plain enough by itself to one reading the Passion.

[8] and its burning. While, then, Machož was performing his rites with his companions, a flame rising from the altar caught the ceiling of the house. A grievous fire had broken out, when the military prefect of Armenia, moved by the present danger, hastened to the Christian church and compelled its clerics to give their help in averting the disaster. When they, carrying the holy cross in procession, had reached the place, the fire, already raging widely, was suddenly extinguished. We have heard the same event narrated somewhat otherwise by Menander, with a certain rather obscure brevity, whether the report had been somewhat changed in travelling or the poet himself allowed something to the metre: εὖτε δὲ πυρσὸς ἔδαπτεν ἐμὴν πόλιν, ἦλθον ἀρῆξαι ἦλθε δὲ καὶ Χριστοῦ πανσθενέος θεράπων· κείνῳ δ᾽ ἐσβέσθη δύναμις φλογός… Above, no. 1, p. 191. But how ineptly fastidious would he be whom those minute discrepancies moved more than the brilliant testimony by which the authority of our Passion is here confirmed by Menander. At any rate, it is not without some wonder that it is narrated in it that a Persian magistrate, plainly alien from the faith of Christ, sought safety in the power of the holy cross. Although the words clearly say this, you would believe, however, that the ministers of the church, requisitioned by him after the manner of camp-servants to put out the fire, of their own accord brought the sacred image with them for their own protection.

[9] But the matter, however it was done, is to be believed to have so happened that it redounded to the praise and vindication of the Christian religion. Moved by the evidence of this prodigy, Machož openly signified and professed the faith which had already secretly possessed his soul. This he did at once, in a manner which roused the indignation of the magi [Cf. Samuel of Ani, at the year 551; ed. Têr-Miqelian, op. cit., p. 74: : prodigies in the metropolis of Armenia, on account of which blessed Machož was converted to the faith; and Brosset, Samouel d'Ani, op. cit., pp. 391–92 (at the year 350). The chronology will be set out below, no. 12.]. Wherefore before the prince of Armenia, Nichoracan the marzban who was called Nichoracan [: the Georgian likewise . Nöldeke disputed learnedly about the name, Tabari, p. 152, note 2; cf. F. Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch (Marburg, 1895), p. 219.], he was accused of having deserted the religion of his fatherland. This Nichoracan, or Nihoracan, who in this place is called prince — for let that word stand for the Armenian išchan (išḫan) [On this title, which is often interchanged with master of the house, see I. Ǧavachov, ( vol. VIII), pp. 112–118.] — is assuredly the same Nihoracan, prefect of the Armenian frontier, whom we read above mentioned by Narses the catholicos [ (cf. above, no. 4, p. 193). You see that the usage of speech was not so fixed that the same office was not called now by one name, now by another, of which kind Ǧavachov has collected many examples (op. cit., p. 106 ff.). Moreover, whoever has read the histories, both Greek and Oriental, of these times knows that among the Persians magistrates not infrequently succeeded each other in the same office who were not designated by the same title: perhaps because they were customarily honoured with the name of some dignity which was proper to them. What the Armenian marzpan () was in the proper sense of the word Adontz explains on purpose, , ch. IX, pp. 211–35.]. Him the Greeks call Ναχοραγάν Agathias, Histories III, 2; ed. L. Dindorf, Historici Minores, vol. II, p. 237. or Ναχόερχαν Menander, Fragments, 11; ed. Dindorf, ibid., p. 28.. known in the histories, If what is subjoined a little after See below, no. 11, and Passion §4. is to be taken strictly, that Nichoracan was then on the point of leaving office [The same man, some years later, having managed affairs badly in Persia, was flayed alive by Chosroes. Agathias, III, 2; ed. Dindorf, op. cit., p. 28.]. Already then, therefore, there existed the chapel of St. Gregory Manaǧirh, which, while he was administering the province, the Huzaïnian newcomers had founded at Dubion Above, no. 4, p. 193.; and in it gatherings of the Huzaïni were held secretly from the Monophysite Armenians, which roused the indignation of Narses the catholicos. To which confession Machož attached himself can seem doubtful to no one who reads this history without a preconceived opinion. Nor is the holy martyr to be thought to have followed the party of the Armenians merely because this has been handed down to us in Armenian. But these things will appear more evidently from the sum of the indications which will be collected below where we treat of the cult and Acts of St. Isbozetes Nos. 14, 16..

[10] The young man — for from his words we understand that he was then twenty-five years old Passion §3; cf. below, no. 14, p. 198. — boldly confessed before the prefect that he had gone over to the Christian faith. And so, having received a beating, Narses, however, not the companion of Isbozetes. he was thrown into chains. In the prison he found a certain Christian, his fellow countryman, Narses by name, of Rai, who had been condemned on a charge of religion Passion, §3.. Who this Narses was is to be gathered from the Passion of St. Isbozetes alone. He had already spent much time in custody, if he had been deprived of liberty at the very beginning of the persecution, which seems to have broken out in the year 540/541, the tenth of King Chosroes J. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l'Empire Perse (Paris, 1904), pp. 177–79.; but nothing probable enough can be established by conjecture. Not imprudently, however, would you think from the very sequence of the narrative that he was a priest See below, nos. 11, 12, 14, pp. 196, 197.. Our Machoz seems not to have found Armenian captives in the prison See below, no. 12, and Passion §5., nor indeed, if he had found them, would he have attached himself to them rather than to the man of Rai. With Narses, then, as master, he learned more fully the Christian doctrine, which he had already partly picked up by hearing elsewhere Above, no. 4, p. 193, note 1., and committed to memory the psalms of David recited by him [Neither the words of the Passion nor the sequence of the events narrated make it probable that Isbozetes was taught Chaldaean or Syriac letters. Here may be compared a passage from the history of the Nestorian martyr Iesusabran († 620/621), who had likewise passed from the Persian religion to the Christian. When a companion exhorted him to learn letters, Iesusabran denied that it was worth while: (Chabot, Histoire de Jésus-sabran, op. cit., p. 525). He said this because he had been accustomed to receive the chants of the magi from the mouth (of the master) — for the doctrine of Zoroaster had not been committed to letters. — And so he asked a boy to deliver little verses to him by word, and, a little verse having been delivered, he meditated on it with great effort, meanwhile tossing his neck after the manner of the magi. But the boy forbade him to do this and said: "Do not do what the magi do; but quietly recite (the little verses) by mouth." In this way, then, he grasped very many little verses in memory in a short time. In the Passion of St. George the Persian this among many other things is suspicious, that the saint, who was likewise the son of magi, is said to have thoroughly learned the letters of the Persians as a quite young boy. Bedjan, Histoire de Mar-Jabahaha, p. 436.].

[11] Meanwhile, as Nichoracan was leaving his office, another leader named Nachapeṭ (Naḫapeṭ) was substituted for him The Georgian: , nahapeti., The saint, by the prefect Nabedes assuredly the same who was called by the Greeks Ναβέδης and is recorded to have been at about those times master of the soldiers of Persarmenia, by whom also the bishop of Dubion, in the Persian war, was sent as envoy for peace to Valerian, the leader of the Romans [Διὸ δὴ Ναβέδης τηνικαῦτα ἐν Περσαρμενίοις τὴν στρατηγίδα ἔχων ἄρχην τὸν ἐν Δούβιος τῶν χριστιανῶν ἱερέα, βασιλέως ἐπαγγείλοντος, παρὰ Βαλεριανὸν τὸν ἐν Ἀρμενίοις στρατηγὸν ἔπεμψεν αἰτιασόμενόν τε τὴν τῶν πρέσβεων βραδυτῆτα καὶ Ῥωμαίους ἐς τὴν εἰρήνην ὁρμήσοντα προθυμίᾳ τῇ πάσῃ (Procopius, De Bello Pers. II, 24, ed. Haury, vol. I, pp. 260–61). Those envoys, of whom the bishop was to complain, Constantianus and Sergius, had been sent from Byzantium to Chosroes when he was preparing to cross through Aderbigana. The same Nabedes, who is said by Procopius, from the words of Belisarius, whom he repulsed from Nisibis, μετά γε τὸν Χοσρόην αὐτὸν δόξῃ τε καὶ τῷ ἄλλῳ ἀξιώματι πρῶτος ἐν Πέρσαις εἶναι (De Bello Pers., II, 18, ed. Haury, vol. I, p. 229), routed the Greeks in a fierce battle in the gorge of Anglon near Dubion. Procopius, Bello Pers., II, 25, Haury, vol. I, p. 264. He is recorded to have waged war successfully against the same in Lazica. Procopius, De Bello Gothico, IV, 9, ed. Haury, vol. II, p. 526.]. This Nabedes, then, or if you prefer Nachapeṭ, having summoned the captive before him, questioned him threateningly, and, taking ill his fearless constancy, sent back into custody, he is baptized there. ordered him to be beaten with clubs and thrown into chains. In this prison, after three years, he received baptism from the priest with whom he was shut up See above no. 10, p. 195., and was called [The Armenian text is uncertain at this place. If the Georgian translator is to be trusted, the saint himself had chosen this new name for himself. It is widespread in this

sacred histories of the Persians : that in the new baptism a new name too was imposed on the one who was baptized. Acts of St. George the Persian, Bedjan, op. cit., p. 440. This custom, however, was sometimes departed from, as the examples of St. Iazdpanah, St. Tahmjazdgerd, St. Sira and others show.] Iztbuziṭ, which is understood as Adeodatus (or Theodotus), that is, saved by God. Of these two interpretations, which exclude each other, the latter is true [John the Catholicos reported this one, omitting the other, op. cit., p. 38, and from him Vardan the Great, = Summary of history illustrated by Vardan the doctor, Venice, 1862, p. 57. The perverse one, on the contrary, was preferred by the Anonymous of whom below, no. 20, p. 201, Gregory Dserentz in the synaxarion and others, whom I. B. Aucher followed, = Fuller Lives and Passions of the saints, vol. X (Venice, 1814), pp. 234, 236, and Leontius Alishan, = Memorials of the Armenian fatherland, vol. II (Venice, 1870), p. 309 ff.]. From where the former ineptly burst in will be explored later. Meanwhile this one thing had to be noted: that the neophyte who was called by this name was baptized neither by the Armenian rite nor by an Armenian priest. The etymology of his name. In reality the word which the Armenian hagiographer expressed in the letters of his fatherland as , Izitbuziṭ [The name was written differently by different people with wonderful variety. Besides the forms which will be read below in our copies, there occur monstrosities: others. Cf. J. Dashian, Catalog der armenischen Handschriften in der Mechitharisten-Bibliothek zu Wien (Vienna, 1895), Armenian part, p. 1123.], and the Georgian translator as , Iziṭbouziṭ, sounds in the Syro-Persian language , Iazdbōzēd [Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, pp. 55–56; cf. Nöldeke, Tabari, pp. 162, note, 287, note 1, 489; Justi, Namenbuch, p. 147 (Yazdbōzedh). Hübschmann judges, loc. cit., that the name Iazdbōzēd was invented on a Semitic model, since it was not the custom among the Persians to have a statement as a name.], that is, freed by God. For this somewhat barbarous form some Greekling, either sparing the ears of his people or untimely remembering the Greek name of Isboseth son of David, rendered Ἰσβόζητα [See above, no. 1, p. 191. Ἰσαοζίτης, which the vulgate text of Constantine Porphyrogenitus carries, is manifestly false.]: which word may we be permitted to make Latin. Isbozetes, then, baptized in custody, in custody also some time afterwards, or perhaps immediately after his very baptism — for neither is indicated clearly enough in the Passion — began to lead the life of a monk, and so made himself the garment which the Greeks call δερμοκουκούλλιον Cf. Passion §§4 and 5; below, pp. 208–209.; nor according to the doctrine and discipline of the Eastern church was he lacking anything to be held as a true monk.

[12] before the prefect Chanaranges, After three years spent in the prefecture [The words of the Passion: three years having again elapsed properly indicate years to be counted from the baptism of Isbozetes. This, however, does not seem rightly said. For the saint was seized by Nichoracan, who in the seventeenth year of Chosroes (547–548) was prefect of the frontier (see above, no. 9, p. 195); and he died on 9 November of the year 553, when the successor of Nabedes had already been administering his office for some time (below, no. 14, p. 198). And so the prefecture of Nabedes could not be extended to six years, even if the year 547–548 was really the last of the prefect Nichoracan, as seems probable. In the Passion of St. Eustathius of Mtskheta, who was thrown into prison in the tenth year of Chosroes (540–541), Arvand Gusnasp being prefect of the Georgian frontier (for so it should be translated), there is read in almost the same words: , after three years came Vežan Buzmil, who was to be prefect of the frontier of Iberia. Sabinin, op. cit., pp. 313, 315; cf. Dschawachoff (Ǧavachov), op. cit., pp. 876, 881. These examples bear the appearance of a certain traditional formula, as if it had been the custom of Chosroes to move the prefects of provinces from office every third year. Of these things again below, no. 12, p. 198.], Qnarik, , was substituted for Nabedes, for so our Armenian seems to have adapted to the consonance of his native speech [ in Armenian is as it were "a smaller lyre". The Georgian, from and , a certain scribe (see below): Knaranidprion ().] a name not infrequent among the Persians, which the Greeks called Χαναράγγη and the Syrians [Otherwise , Qanarag. Justi lists some examples of this name, Namenbuch, p. 55; to which add the lame Qanarag, prefect of the frontier (marzapan), who in the year 503, when Cabades was besieging Amida, broke through the entrance of the city. Zacharias Rhetor, Historia ecclesiastica, VII, 4, ed. Brooks, vol. VI, p. 25; which passage Michael the Syrian copied out, J. B. Chabot, Chronique de Michel le Syrien (Paris, 1902), p. 258. From its native meaning the Persian word, which today sounds Kanarang, was the title of a military dignity. See Procopius, De Bello Persico, I, 5, ed. Haury, op. cit., p. 21; cf. Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 442, note 5. And so what John the Catholicos says, that Isbozetes was afflicted with very many punishments by the marzban Všnasn Vahram, does not openly contradict our Acts. See above, no. 2, p. 191, note 10. Všnasn (or perhaps Všnasp) Vahram, from wherever John the Catholicos fished out this name, recalls Eruand Všnasp, marzban of Iberia, by whom St. Gregory of Rai is reported in the Armenian Passion to have been thrown into chains. Ararat, op. cit., p. 471.]. Of this man, however, no certain mention occurs elsewhere that we have read [In the year 548 a certain young Persarmenian, Chanaranges by name, was put in custody at Constantinople because of a conspiracy entered into with Artabanes the Armenian against the emperor Justinian (Procopius, De Bello Gothico, III, 32; Haury, vol. II, p. 435). Not altogether gratuitously can it be conjectured that he, released or escaped from custody, tried a new fortune with the king of the Persians. Yet let it be noted that in the Greek army which, under the leadership of Narses, made war on Italy in the year 553, there was among the tribunes a certain Chanaranges, an Armenian. Agathias, Histories book V, ch. 6, ed. B. G. Niebuhr (Bonn, 1828), p. 76.]. This Qnarik, whoever he was, did not concern himself with St. Isbozetes, but committed his case to a certain scribe, by whom the captive, after the usual savageries in inquiries of this kind, was loaded with iron chains. Meanwhile there came to Dubion three magistrates sent by the king of the Persians, before the royal inquisitors, to annul the injuries inflicted on the peoples of Armenia: which, said by the hagiographer of a pagan king, wins credence by itself, nor is it foreign to the ways of Chosroes, whose equity and prudence the Christian writers themselves have praised Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 160, note 3.. Those triumvirs were Natoi, who was also Drovandacan, Peroz, archimagus of the province of Rei [, in the Georgian: Reus (). The province of Rhei, or Ragiana, the same which was called Razicene by the Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, is to be understood as the region subject to the town of Rei, which is Rhages (‘Payai) in Media (Tob. 1, 16; 4, 21); cf. T. K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, Encyclopædia Biblica (London, 1907), col. 4005; W. Geiger, Geographie von Iran, in Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, vol. II, 3 (1897), p. 389; Marquart, Erānšahr, pp. 122–24, 126–29. On the religious principate of Razicene let Iacut the geographer alone be heard, s. v. Ustūnāvand (= Dumbāvand): In the age of the Persians this was the stronghold of the masmaḡān, king of this region, who relied wholly on it. And Maṣmaghān is understood as mas maḡān; mas indeed is great, and maḡān, magi; the sense, then, is: "prince of the magi". Jacut's geographisches Wörterbuch, ed. Ferd. Wüstenfeld, vol. I (Leipzig, 1866), p. 244; cf. de Harlez, Avesta, p. CXCII. The archimagus of the province of Rei, therefore, seems to have been as it were the supreme pontiff of the Mazdaeans.], and Choiap (Ḫoiap) [The Georgian: Pata (), which in the "priestly" script is not so enormously distant from Choiap (Ḫoiap) as it seems.], who was the king's minister or chamberlain. These two latter are not mentioned elsewhere in the histories. On the contrary, the name Natoi recalls that Nadoes who in the year 576 is reported by Menander to have been sent by Chosroes to the emperor Justin, ἐς τὴν λεγομένην σμικρὰν χειροτονηθεὶς πρεσβείαν πρὸς Χοσρόου ἐκπεμφθείς [Excerpta de legationibus, ed. De Boor (Berlin, 1903), p. 463 ff. More obscure is the word Drovandacan, which was as it were the man's surname. (The Georgian again devised from Natoi and Drovandacan: Avtodrovandacani, .) That this name is a family name its very form shows. Until a more probable interpretation shines from elsewhere, I should doubtfully conjecture that it is derived from the name of the city of Darband, which is found written among the Armeno-Georgians Daruband, (Ǧuansser, = Brief history of the Georgians, Venice, 1884, p. 15 and elsewhere; cf. , = Life of Georgia, ed. Z. Dšidšinadze, Tiflis, 1879, p. 186). There agrees the interpretation of the word in ps.-Moses of Khoren: : Darband, that is, bond and gate. = Geography of Moses of Khoren, ed. Arsenius Soukry, Venice, 1881, p. 27. This form of the word, expressed in Syriac letters, would be , which could be read by an incautious translator: Drovand.]. Isbozetes summoned, What follows also savours of the truth of history. One day, in accordance with the king's mandate, the inquisitors had proclaimed an assembly in the forum, as was established by Persian custom and law whenever a weightier case was to be heard or judgment to be passed on a man of rank [Cf. K. Patkanian, Essai d'une histoire de la dynastie des Sassanides, traduit du russe par Évar. Prudhomme (Paris, 1866), p. 12. The kings of the Persians themselves were accustomed on certain days sometimes, sitting on horseback on a raised platform in an open place, to receive the complaints of petitioners, so that in their palaces, "where there were so many doors, lattices, vestibules and curtains," malevolent men might not be able to keep them from the king's sight. Christensen, op. cit., p. 73.]. While, then, they were administering their business and not thinking of hunting down Christians, behold, informers openly thrust upon them the case of the captives who were being held in prison for having deserted the religion of the Persians. The archimagus could not wink at a charge of this kind, to whom, at any rate, the chief part belonged in a judgment on religion. And so he ordered that the accused, whose names had been indicated, should be presented to him: "Narses of Rai, Isaac of Atropatene and Isbozetes the Persian Passion, §5; below, p. 209.". The first seems to be that same Narses the priest by whom St. Isbozetes was instructed and baptized in custody See above, nos. 10–11, pp. 195–96.. The second, however, of

he is understood from his fatherland and name to have been an inhabitant or neighbour of Persia [Atropatene, or Adherbaïǧan, was a very large province bordering on Media on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, towards the south.], otherwise unknown to us.

[13] in accordance with Persian law And so the confessors, brought before the tribunal, were questioned one by one. The sum of this interrogation the Passion comprises with clear propriety. Isbozetes, boldly professing himself a deserter of the magian religion by deliberate judgment, roused against himself the anger of the judge, by whom he was shamefully beaten and thrust back into prison. By Persian law, however, on account of a charge of religion, only those were by then condemned to death who had deserted the ancestral rites [Cf. Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 162, note 3 on p. 160. E. Sachau, Von den rechtlichen Verhältnissen der Christen im Sasanidenreich, in Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalischen Sprachen, vol. X (1907), p. 72 ff. In fact all the martyrs who are reported to have suffered in the reign of Chosroes Anošarvan had fallen away from the religion of the magi, such as, besides Gregory Pirangušnasp, of whom above, nos. 2–3, pp. 191–92, St. Iazdpanah (Bedjan, Histoire de Mar-Jabalaha, pp. 394–415); St. Golinduch (A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ἀναλεκτὰ Ἱεροσολυμιτικῆς σταχυολογίας, vol. IV, Petrograd, 1897, pp. 149–74, 351–56); St. Sira (Acta SS., May vol. IV, pp. 172–83); St. Eustathius of Mtskheta (Sabinin, op. cit., pp. 313–22), omitting others who escaped capital punishment.]. And so the two companions of Isbozetes were to be acquitted of the capital charge [In the year 544–545 a certain Christian named Stephen, who was held in chains with St. Eustathius at Mtskheta, was released by the prefect of Iberia, because the leading men of the Syrians had testified that he was a Christian by birth. Sabinin, op. cit., p. 316; cf. Harnack and Dschawachoff, op. cit., p. 882.], both of whom had been brought up in the Christian religion, and Narses indeed born also of a Christian mother. Neither, however, was released, whether the judge did not believe them, or wished to gratify the fanatical accusers. After an interval of three days, the three captives, tried again in vain, began to be harassed with starvation, suffocation and other tortures, until on the tenth night a wonderful dream appeared to Isbozetes as he slept, from which his companions understood that martyrdom was now close at hand for him. Towards dawn the saint was led out to the last contest. Narses and Isaac, however, remained in custody: what their end was is not reported in the Passion; but it is almost certain that they escaped the capital sentence [SS. Narses and Isaac are read to have suffered with St. Isbozetes (Sositheus) in the Synaxarion of Constantinople. See below, no. 17, p. 200. This had not yet been devised, or had already passed from men's memory, when a certain forger invented that the Passion of Isbozetes had been committed to writing by that Narses (cf. no. 21, below, p. 201). Three other martyrs, Persians by race, crucified with Isbozetes, are mentioned by Samuel of Ani and others, who also report their names. See below no. 20. That these, unless they are the robbers of whom we shall speak presently, will be sought in vain is manifest.]. Isbozetes, however, was produced again before the same judges, to whom a fourth seems to have been added Passion §7, below, p. 211.. Solicited by them again, he answered again that he was ready to die for the faith of Christ, he was condemned. was condemned to the cross and at once handed over to the lictors. To the same punishment two robbers were sentenced together with him. One, who was of the community of the Huzaïni Passion §8, below, p. 212., followed the holy martyr with pious veneration, and, strengthened by his example and invocation, met death bravely. The other, who was a Jew, vainly protesting that he would go over to the religion of the Persians, was raised ignominiously on the cross. Between these, hanging in the middle on the cross, Isbozetes was dispatched with arrows by the surrounding multitude Passion §7; below, p. 211.. And as for the hagiographer's adding that these things happened after the example of Christ the Saviour dying on the cross between two robbers, the thought of the readers has assuredly already anticipated it of its own accord [Cf. Eusebius on St. Nemesius the martyr, Ecclesiastical History, VI, 41, 21; ed. Schwartz, p. 608.]. No one, however, who has read that simple and vivid narrative in the Passion itself will think that it was freely invented by a forger [Yet, lest we trust human reason too much even in the most evident matters, F. A. Conybeare persuaded himself that St. Isbozetes and his two companions were sacrificed to the divinity of the sun, or even slaughtered by the not yet obsolete rite of that celebrated feast of the Sacaea. The learned man does not deny, however, that the candid credibility of the whole narrative resists this second opinion. The Armenian Apology and Acts of Apollonius and other Monuments of Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (London, 1896), pp. 258–59.].

[14] The chronology of the Acts. St. Isbozetes suffered in the twenty-third year of King Chosroes, on the day which was the second of the month Qalots, on a Sunday, at the third hour Passion, §9.. Now the first year of Chosroes is reckoned from the twelfth day of July of the year 531 Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 428.: the twenty-third, therefore, from the same day of the year 553: in which year, in the "erratic" or movable calendar of the Armenians, the second day of the month Qalots fell on the ninth day of November Cf. G. Têr-Mrkrtčian, , Ararat, op. cit., p. 470, note 1.; which was in fact a Sunday. In a more recent age Stephen of Taron [Universal History, book II, ch. 2; I. B. Emin, (Moscow, 1864), p. 58; H. Gelzer and A. Burckhardt, Des Stephanos von Taron Armenische Geschichte (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 58–59.], Samuel of Ani Ed. Têr-miqelian, op. cit., p. 75; Brosset, Samouel d'Ani, op. cit., p. 393. and other Armenian chronographers after them [See below, nos. 17–18; cf. also Mechithar of Aïrivanq, [= History of Armenia, ed. I. B. Emin (Moscow, 1860), p. 48; M. Brosset, Histoire chronologique par Mkhithar d'Aïrivank, XIIIe s., in Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, 7th ser., vol. XIII, 5 (1869), p. 74.], whether by working out the calculations themselves or by following some little memory which had reached them by an unknown road, reported that St. Isbozetes fell in the very year in which the cycle of 532 years, which the Armenians used in computing the reckoning of time, was first introduced by the synod of Dubion. This in fact happened in the year 553; although about this number there is no agreement among them [Éd. Dulaurier, Recherches sur la chronologie armenienne (Paris, 1859), pp. 48–55; cf. pp. 172–74.]. We, indeed, need not linger on a matter long since decided, since the testimony of the Passion defends itself by its own evidence, and must not be hindered by the rubbish of the histories, but on the contrary the more recent documents must be brought back to its authority. From this limit of time, then, which is certain, the spans of the saint's life can in some way be computed backwards. For he was first questioned by the royal inquisitors on 25 October, and again on the 29th. Further, the triumvirs, before the name of St. Isbozetes was indicated to them, had settled not a few affairs in the land of the Armenians. Nor is it probable that they were sent there as soon as Chanaranges had taken over the administration of this province. For such a disgraceful inquiry to be set up within his jurisdiction, he must have been convicted before the king by frequent denunciations and complaints of badly abusing his power or of not correcting the misdeeds of his predecessors. Not after the year 552, then, and perhaps even earlier, did Nabedes leave his office, a short time after Isbozetes was baptized See no. 11, above, p. 196.. Now if it is recalled that the saint, about three years before, when he was questioned by Nichoracan, was in his twenty-fifth year, the spans of his age are defined as it were by these limits: born about the year 522 or 523, on 18 April of the year 542 he is present at the martyrdom of St. Gregory Managirh; some days having intervened, he flees into Sunitis; after a few months, in the same year at any rate, he makes for Dubion; where, with Chosroes Peroz the synarch, he lives in the college of the magi until about the year 547 or 548 [Relying on no certain document, but reasoning somehow from the Passion or from elsewhere, Samuel of Ani referred the conversion of Isbozetes to the year 551 or 550. See above p. 195, note 2.], in which he was thrown into prison. Of the time of his captivity and death we have just spoken. Everything else is entirely uncertain.

§ II. On the cult of St. Isbozetes.

[16] On the saint's relics. In veiled but clear words it is narrated in the Passion that the body of the holy martyr was stealthily taken away by the Christians Passion §9., which very often happened both in Persia and elsewhere. The hagiographer of the flock that reworked the genuine Acts, however, preferred See below, no. 21, p. 201. that it was granted to the Armenians by the Persian magistrate, with his good leave, to take St. Isbozetes down from the cross. The same man heard from somewhere, unless he invented it himself, that the gibbet was cut into pieces, which the faithful received for themselves under the name of eulogia. By more certain testimony it is established that the saint was honourably buried and that his funeral was celebrated with solemn rite [Note that in the genuine Passion at this place neither the Armenian faithful nor the Armenian church are named.]; but of a monument or chapel built in his honour nothing has been handed down from antiquity. Yet at the end of the 7th century there already existed in the town of Dubion a memorial of St. Isbozetes. For St. David the Arab, who fell a martyr in the same city on 31 March of the year 693, was carried , to the church of St. Gregory [One is not to think of the chapel of St. Gregory Pirangušnasp, which we read above was utterly overthrown by Narses the catholicos. See above, no. 4, p. 193.]; and there, the obsequies having been performed, he was laid [= Armenian Library, vol. XIX, Venice, 1854, p. 95.], in the coffin of St. Isbozetes. In the year 693, therefore, the ashes of St. Isbozetes were believed to be kept in the church of St. Gregory the Illuminator of the Armenians, which about a century before, in the year 593, Symbatius Bagratuni, marzban of Hyrcania, having received authority from Chosroes son of Hormisdas, is read in John the Catholicos to have erected in the city of Dubion of cut stones Ed. Emin, op. cit., p. 41.. He adds that it long ago

by St. Vardan [St. Vardan, commander of the Armenians († c. 554); concerning whom BHO. 1237 – 1240.] had been built of brick and wood . John the Catholicos, volume cited, p. 41.; designating, as it seems, that church of St. Gregory near the city of Dvin (), which, after it had been turned into a granary by the Persians, the Greeks had destroyed by fire a little after the year 571 [Sebeos, ed. K. P(atkanian), = Historia Sebeos episcopi de Heraclio, Petropoli, 1879, c. 1, p. 26; F. Macler, Histoire d'Hěraclius par l'ěvêque Sebêos (Paris, 1904), p. 5.]. A little story has been invented Whoever compares all these things with one another will see how little credit is owed to that same patriarch John, who writes thus of our Isbozetes: The holy body of the holy martyr, Narses the Great, patriarch of the Armenians, with all the bishops and clergy of the church, carried out and laid down near the holy church of the catholic see, toward the east, a holy memorial of hewn stones having been built over it John the Catholicos, volume cited, p. 38..

For how could the holy martyr be laid to rest in the year 553 near a church which was built only some forty years afterwards? Unless perhaps the memorial of St. Isbozetes was older than the very building which adjoined it: after his tomb was built. which more certain testimonies do not allow us to believe. Nearer to the truth comes Vardan the historian (in the fourteenth century), who, correcting John the Catholicos, whether of his own accord or from some other author, relates that the church of St. Gregory was founded and dedicated in Dvin by Narses the Great; and straightway continues thus:

Summa historiae, volume cited, p. 67., there they also laid the relics of St. Isbozetes and of David the martyr. That is to say, some interval of time before St. David was joined to him in the tomb, St. Isbozetes himself was brought into the patriarchal church of the Armenians, and only then for the first time was built for him the little shrine which John the Catholicos mentions. Where he had rested before, when and by whom his bones were raised, cannot be proved from such documents as are available to us.

[16] St. Isbozetes a nursling of the Persian church, Nay rather, it is very doubtful whether St. Isbozetes belonged to the Armenian church while alive, and whether he began to be venerated by it immediately upon his death. Certainly in our Passion he is said to have first openly professed the Christian faith before the Armenian clergy Passion §2; below, p. 206.; nor is the thing to be thought to have happened otherwise than as it has been narrated to us. For apart from that clandestine chapel of the Huzaye, of St. Gregory Managirh in Dvin, there was no church of the Christians except the Armenian. But what afterwards? The Persians themselves called the Armenians to put out the fire and then departed from them; our Machož also departed, and is not recorded to have had any dealings with the Armenians thereafter. Menander certainly did not hear that the deed of heroic virtue which he celebrated in verse took place in a sect which at that very time had stirred up afresh its old hatreds against the Greeks. All the remaining indications, and the very connection of the whole narrative, rather suggest that he who had been Machož the magus, after he passed over to the Christian religion, adhered to the faith and communion of his own countrymen. For, drawn to the Gospel by the example of the martyr of Rayy, he lived in Dvin with the Huzaye, as is very likely, for some years, at the memorial of that same martyr, which the Armenians suspected as a lurking-place of the Nestorians [We have already reported the complaints of Narses, catholicos of the Armenians, no. 4, above, p. 193. With what exception they are to be tempered, see below, no. 17, p. 200.]; he learned the Christian doctrine from a priest of Rayy; he was baptized by the same and was called by a Persian name Above, no. 11, p. 196.; finally, a certain robber, a Huzaya, is said to have shown him signs of veneration as he died; a Huzaya, I say, and likewise a Christian, belonging by faith and by race, if not by manner of life, to that colony against which at this very time Narses the catholicos was inveighing so sharply, and whose own chapel he was about to overthrow a few months later Above, no. 4, p. 193.. Add a certain Persian colouring with which the whole narrative is suffused. All of which things are the more worthy of note because they have been handed down by an Armenian writer — not to say translator — who certainly cared nothing to show that St. Isbozetes had been a proselyte of the Persian church. After his death adopted by the Armenians. Nor did it come about through some unheard-of confusion of affairs that a martyr from the community of the Huzaye was afterwards reckoned among the Armenian saints: for Gregory of Rayy himself, whose sanctuary those same Armenians had pulled down, their descendants freely granted citizenship.

[17] His cult among the Greeks That the holy martyr was celebrated among the Greeks also we have already heard from Menander Protector Above, no. 1, p. 191.. Nay more, he was inscribed in their liturgical calendars: for there is no doubt that our Isbozetes and the companions of his confession are announced by the synaxarion of the church of Constantinople on the 9th day of December, where we read: Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Σωσιθέου, Ναρσῆ καὶ Ἰσαάκ [Synax. Eccl. CP., p. 294. On the day to which this mention has been attached, see below, no. 20.]. Which no one will wonder at who has not persuaded himself that the Persian church was cut off from the Greek after the tragedy of Nestorius as if by a sudden chasm [Note besides that all who professed the Chalcedonian faith were indiscriminately called Nestorians by the Armenians. In Huzaye at any rate, whence that colony of Dvin had its origin, the Christians in the tenth century are reckoned among the Melkites by the Arab historian al-Maqdisi: , in Huzaye there are also Melkites; ed. J. de Goeje, Bibliotheca geographorum arabicorum, vol. III (Leiden, 1877), p. 415. Compare St. Demetrianus of Antioch, in Anal. Boll., vol. XLII.]. So too the Byzantines adopted other Persian martyrs of the same and the following age, and translated their Acts into the Greek language [Let St. Shirin and St. Golinduch, who have just been mentioned, serve as examples (above, no. 13, p. 197, note 10). On St. Golinduch see besides Evagrius, book VI, c. 21; ed. J. Bidez and L. Parmentier (London, 1898), p. 235; and Synax. Eccl. CP., on the 12th day of July, p. 815.]. More unexpected is it that they agree with the Armenians in venerating a foreign martyr who suffered in the year 553, in that year, I say, in which the latter renewed the war against the council of Chalcedon See Têr-Minassiantz, Die armenische Kirche, p. 40 and following.. Yet so the matter stands; which, in that long and uncertain confusion of the eastern sects, could have come about in many ways, especially if the cult of St. Isbozetes did not take its origin from the Armenians, but, as we seem to perceive, was instituted by the Persians and passed by another way, on the one side to the Greeks, on the other to the Armenians. From the Armenians in turn, not by the continuity of a liturgical tradition, so to speak, but by a kind of literary adoption, it was borrowed by the Georgians, and the Georgians. followers of the Greeks in all things, who certainly cared nothing whether Isbozetes had been a nursling of the Persian church or of the Armenian. Of the posthumous glory of the holy martyr nothing else worth recording occurs, besides the mentions of him that are read here and there in hagiographical books, which must now at last be dealt with.

§ III. On the Acts of St. Isbozetes.

[18] The style of the Acts Certain smaller indications, yet not to be neglected, which are noted in the style of the Passion, seem again to betray a Persian origin. For with that candid and ingenuous narrative of the little book there clash certain things said in a twisted or inept way, which argue not the carelessness of the writer or the ignorance of the copyist, but the error of a translator stumbling over a Syriac exemplar. The very structure of the language bends here and there toward the Syriac. Of mistakes of this kind, which will be found indicated in their proper place below in the notes to the Passion, we shall bring forward two here which touch more nearly on historical reasoning. In §2, where the sacred rites of the Persians are described briefly indeed but most aptly, the text as it has been handed down to us has this: The hammer which he used in the superstitions of fire, he broke in pieces … That the word hammer, which is read also in the Georgian version, is in some way corrupt, the very incongruity of the words demonstrates. Now it is a thing long since widely known that the magi, when they performed their sacred rites, were accustomed to raise in the left hand rods of tamarisk, or of palm, or of pomegranate, bound together [See the notes below to the Passion §2, p. 206, note 1.]. This ritual bundle was certainly what the hagiographer meant who first wrote the history of St. Isbozetes, and who, both in all other things and also in noting the ceremonies of the fire-worshippers, shows himself a most knowledgeable witness. As far as the thing itself is concerned, nothing can be more evident. But how could our Armenian, if he had known the rites of the Persians by his own knowledge and observation, call hammer [Certainly from , "hammer", by an easy conjecture , "twig", can be produced. But in vain. For that there is some similarity of the things on the one side and of the names on the other is plainly fortuitous. Besides, it was not so great that, without a rustic abuse of words, the sacred instrument such as the baresman is described could be called by the improper term "twig".] that which in his native language was most commonly called barsmunq, from the Persian name barsam? Did he then deliberately flee from propriety of speech, nay even from the truth of the things to be signified? Either, then, he interpreted by guesswork a word unknown to him, betrays a Syriac origin. or instead of , which is the Syro-Persian name of that magical bundle, he seemed to himself to have read , "hammer", or he was deceived by some other error; but he certainly betrays that he is relating another's narrative, which he had not read in Armenian: therefore in Syriac. The other example is that ambiguous interpretation of the name Isbozetes which we reported above: Isbozetes, which is understood as Adeodatus, that is, saved by God See above, no. 11, p. 196.. He who stammered these words did not himself perceive the origin of the name Iazdbōzēdh, nor did he bring out what he had thought up himself, but found in a foreign author a doubled interpretation, of which he rendered one member correctly and twisted the other heedlessly. Suppose, namely, that in the Syriac had been written: , Isbozetes, which is translated delivered by God, that is, God saved him. In a statement of this kind, if a drowsy translator, instead of saved, seemed to himself to read gave (as a gift), that very thing would at once be produced which the Armenian hagiographer clumsily said. Is it easier to believe that he spoke contradictions of his own accord and without cause? But of these things more conveniently in the notes to the Passion [An argument cannot be drawn from the fact that Narses, his companion in prison, is said to have committed to writing a shorter Passion of St. Isbozetes: for that is recent and false. See below, no. 21, p. 201. Nevertheless it is worth noting that the man of Rayy was changed into an Armenian writer.].

[19] Their undoubted credibility. In whatever language, finally, our little book was written, its ingenuous clarity and sincerity indicate an author close to that age or even contemporary with it, who grasped the things narrated with sure knowledge not sought from afar, and related them candidly. He nowhere exceeded the customary licences of the hagiographical style. Indeed, the fact that he touched so briefly on the posthumous history of the holy martyr, so as to mention neither the monument erected on his tomb nor the veneration shown him by the people, seems to show that he committed the life and death of Isbozetes to writing shortly after his contest. And to him he secured, too, a lasting renown by his excellent account. For if you set aside the excerpt of Menander Protector, Various mentions of Isbozetes in Greek literature whose origin is uncertain [See above, no. 1, p. 191. It is worth noting that Menander knew only those things which were done in the city of Dvin, of which he thinks Isbozetes a citizen. Indeed, it does not even seem to have been clear to him in what city these things happened. For he does not name Dvin, and he relates that Isbozetes was crucified not in Persarmenia but in Persia. Wherefore it is more likely that he learned the history of the saint not from a written monument that flowed from the Passion, but heard it by word of mouth from some narrator, whether a Greekling or a Persian.] and which had no offspring, from that one source are derived all the historical mentions of St. Isbozetes which occur here and there among the Armenian writers from John the Catholicos onward; and wherever these differ from the Passion, they have doubtful credibility, much less an authority superior to it. To the same source, in one way or another, is traced back also the aforesaid elogium of the synaxarion of the church of Constantinople, in which, besides Sositheus-Isbozetes, Narses and Isaac his companions are named [It is helpful to compare with this the mention which we quote below, no. 20, from the Chronography of Samuel of Ani. See above, p. 198, note 1.]. Thence likewise his memory was carried over to the Byzantines, by another way and in another form, in the twelfth century, in that Greek Narration on the affairs of Armenia [Codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, Greek 900, fol. 146v; compare P. G., vol. CXXXII, p. 1244. This little book, whose writer some have suspected to be one man and others another, G. Der Sahaghian thinks, fairly probably, to have been composed by Isaac, an Armenian presbyter, who in the twelfth century, compelled to change his soil for the sake of the faith, took refuge among the Greeks and refuted the heresies of his countrymen in Greek as best he could. Un fragment grec d'Histoire ecclésiastique de l'Arménie, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vol. XIX (1910), p. 43 – 45.], in which is read: Ὥρισαν δὲ μεγάλην σύνοδον ἐν πόλει Τίβην, τῷ κδ᾽ [Instead of κδ᾽, which is the year of Chosroes in the following line, read δ᾽, as is read in Stephen Asołik (Emin, volume cited, p. 58). Têr-Minassiantz, having laboriously worked out the reckonings, thinks that Narses the catholicos was elected in the year 548/549: if that is true, the synod of Dvin was held in his sixth year (554). Die armenische Kirche, p. 42, note. Compare above, no. 4, p. 193, note 10.] ἔτει τοῦ αὐτοῦ καθολικοῦ Ναρσέση Codex Νορσέση. καὶ τῷ ιγ᾽ Edition ιβ᾽. ἔτει Ἰουστι〈νια-〉νοῦ Edition Ἰουστίνου. Καίσαρος, καὶ τῷ κδ᾽ τοῦ Χοσρόη τῶν Περσῶν βασιλέως, καὶ τῷ ἐνιαυτῷ ᾧ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἐστιποστί Read: Ἐσιτποσίτ;; edition: ἐμαρτύρησε Νεστιποστί., καὶ ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν Ἀρμενίων.

[20] and Armenian. In the Chronography of Samuel of Ani Ed. Têr-Miqelian, work cited, p. 75., under the year 554, the death of St. Isbozetes is announced in these words:

Saint Isbozetes (Jizdbuziṭ), who is also Machož, was consummated by martyrdom in Christ; and likewise Isaac, Samuel and Iezemchuast (Iězěmḫuasṭ), of the same nation. Akin to this in form and origin is the appendix which some copyist or other added of his own accord at the end of chapter XXII (otherwise XXIV) of the history of Stephen of Taron, where the synod of Dvin had been mentioned:

[Ed. Emin, volume cited, p. 70; compare Brosset, Histoire de la Siounie, volume cited, p. 61, note 1.]:

In these days was consummated by (the punishment of) the cross the great martyr of Christ, the new hero and blessed Persian Machož, who in baptism was likewise called Isbozetes, which is translated Adeodatus, in the city of Dvin; with him, of the same nation, Isaac and Samuel and Iězěmḫuasṭ were consummated as martyrs. You would not rashly conjecture that the common source of both mentions was some adulterated form of the Passion, of which, however, no more certain trace has been found.

[21] A spurious epitome of the Passion A shorter Passion of St. Isbozetes, corrupted from the genuine Acts, was inserted under the 19th day of the month Mehekan, which is the 25th of February, by Gregory Dserentz into the Armenian synaxarion which he recast at the beginning of the fifteenth century On which see Anal. Boll., vol. XXX, p. 20 – 26.. Narses, the companion in punishment of St. Isbozetes Adeodatus, falsely claims in the colophon appended to it that he wrote it See above, p. 198, note 1.. Since attestations of this kind are not usually attached to the notices of synaxaria, this one was not devised by Gregory himself but by some forger, whose work he either abridged himself or copied out as abridged by another. As for the substance of the matter, that slight and meagre epitome has been augmented by two fictions: that the catholicos of the Armenians was present at the contest of St. Isbozetes in pontifical array with the whole clergy; and that the same man, with the assent of the prince of the city, saw to the funeral of the blessed martyr most magnificently. This second the forger could have borrowed from John the historian Above, no. 4, p. 199.. Yet by a new and inept error he called this catholicos Moses, for in the year 553 there was no catholicos Moses Têr-Minassiantz, Die armenische Kirche, volume cited, p. 60, note., and the Armenian church was ruled by Narses II of Aštarak. But who first devised, against all likelihood, that pomp, not religious but almost theatrical, which is supposed to have surrounded St. Isbozetes as he died, there is no leisure to find out. In the rest of the narrative likewise certain smaller things were changed, the account of places and times obscured or confused, names for the most part omitted. In a word, a little book of slight credibility, which contributes nothing at all to the history of the saint.

[22] It passed into the Armenian synaxarion. It is worth noting that in that ancient form of the Armenian synaxarion which circulates under the name of "Ter Israel" Anal. Boll., volume cited, p. 8 – 20., St. Isbozetes does not appear. Gregory Dserentz, as we have said, inscribed him in his work on the twenty-fifth day of February, for no reason that we can perceive. The Georgians assigned his feast to the twenty-eighth day of July; to which day also the death of the saint is referred in the Georgian version: whence you might conjecture, not without some slight show of truth, that the Passion was translated into Georgian at the time when the second day of the month Kʻałocʻ of the movable calendar fell on the twenty-eighth day of July, which happened from the year 972 to 976. The Greeks, however, announce the memory of St. Sositheus-Isbozetes on the 9th day of December, which precedes by only one day the second day of Kʻałocʻ in the fixed or stable calendar of the Armenians. And these are about all the things concerning St. Isbozetes that we have found recorded in the hagiographical monuments.

[23] The Armenian Passion of St. Isbozetes was printed [See above, no. 1, p. 191. Nothing toward the emendation of the text is contributed by the excerpts which were edited again by Leontius Alishan, , vol. II (Venice, 1870), p. 521 – 29; , vol. II (same place, 1901), p. 124 – 30.] from a codex about which the editor chose to leave his readers wholly ignorant, and the like of which we know of none in the libraries of Europe. As soon as, the tumult of wars having subsided, The first edition of the Passion. the way lay open to us, we had recourse to those who had the sources of the Venetian edition best in view. But those learned and obliging men, though questioned by us five times, by letters and through an intermediary and even by inquiry in person, were five times prevented by some adverse fate from complying with our importunity. At last, when it was already on the point of this commentary being sent to the press, we found, from the recently published catalogue of the manuscript "eclogaria" of the renowned library of St. Lazarus at Venice, the codex which had so long escaped us, marked with the number 225 [Basile Sarghissian, Grand Catalogue des manuscrits armeniens de la bibliothèque des PP. Mekhitharistes de Saint-Lazare, vol. II (Venice, no year), pp. 389, 396.]. This was copied by Fr. Narses Sarghissian from an old book of eclogaria, though of not sufficiently certain age, in "round" script, Its sole source. which, between the years 1846 – 1852, he found preserved in Karin, or Theodosiopolis, a city of Armenia Which today is called by the vernacular name Erzerum.. What the fate of this archetype has been we do not know, nor could it easily be dug out from its present hiding-place, if indeed it escaped unharmed from so many calamities of a most wretched nation and region. As far as our matter is concerned, the transcript made by a most learned man can serve in place of the older exemplar. The Venetian codex, to which we no longer had any opportunity of access, was collated for us most obligingly, as is his custom, when he was setting out for Jerusalem, by that learned man Robert P. Blake.

[24] The same man, learned and kindly alike, on returning from his journey informed us that at Jerusalem, in the library of St. James of the Armenians, he had come upon another exemplar of the Passion of St. Isbozetes. It is found in cod. No 1, The Jerusalem codex. which was written between the years 1409 and 1412, where on fol. 782 – 785 is read The Martyrdom of the holy martyr Isbozetes (Jizbzuta). It begins with these words:

In the reign of Chosroes son of Kavadh, king of the Persians, the confession of the Christians grew stronger, and not a few from the land of the Persians gave forth martyrdom at the court of the king. At which time Mahoš 〈was〉 a magus from the same land, from the region which is called Meršapuh [Compare above, no. 2, with note 7, p. 191. Meršapuh, more correctly Mihršapuh, is the name of a man, by the similarity of which the copyist was deceived.], from the village whose name is Qunarasṭan. His parents were ministers of the fire. He himself too, trained from boyhood in the rite of the magi, was strong in sharpness of wit and in the learning of the fire-worshippers, but also in prudence of mind. This man, when by some chance he had come to the residence of the king, was present at the execution of a certain martyr named Gregory. Astonished at the boldness of the faith of this martyr, and emulating with pious zeal his unshaken patience, he said thus in his heart: "Lord God of the Christians…" The Jerusalem exemplar ends with these words:

Thus therefore the blessed Isbozetes suffered martyrdom bravely, in the twentieth [Read: twenty-third; compare above, no. 12, and the Passion, §9.] year of the reign of Chosroes, king of the Persians, which was the second day of the month Kʻałocʻ, on the Lord's day, at the third hour. Now it had been commanded that the body of the saint should be guarded. But the faithful, with God's favour, stole away the relics of the saint,

and, wrapped in precious garments with sweet-smelling spices, laid them in a tomb, celebrating the commemoration of the saint splendidly with immense joy, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. These two specimens show clearly what help can be expected from the Jerusalem codex. Plainly this transcript is inferior to the Venetian, rather freely abridged and not free of mistakes, and accommodated to some extent to the barbarism of a later age. Nevertheless we at once endeavoured to procure its help for ourselves, for whatever it is worth. But the times have disappointed this hope too [A complete transcript of the codex, if we are able to obtain one, will be published in the Analecta Bollandiana.].

[25] The Georgian version. The Georgian version was edited by Alexander Khakhanov See above, no. 1, p. 191, note 4. from the celebrated manuscript of the lavra of the Georgians on Athos, No 57; which codex is of parchment, consisting of 381 leaves, 0m, 34 ×0,28 [Compare A. A. Tsagareli, translated by O. Wardrop, Georgian Manuscripts at the Iberian Monastery on Mount Athos, in Journal of Theological Studies, vol. XII (1911), p. 603; and especially N. Marr, , in Zapiski Vostočnavo Otdělenija Russkavo Arḫeologičeskavo Obščestva, vol. XIII (1900), p. 47 – 72.]. Nicholas Marr indeed, the one most eminent master of Georgian letters, thinks that this codex was written in the tenth century in Klarjeti or in Tao Place cited, p. 47; compare Zapiski Vostočn. Otděl., vol. XVII (1906), p. 292.. But, with the good leave of so great a man, I would more readily say that it was written in Palestine, though by a copyist of Klarjeti or Tao Anal. Boll., vol. XXXI, p. 8; vol. XXXIX, p. 292.. The ductus of the letters too comes wonderfully close to the Jerusalem script [We have here in hand several specimens from that codex formerly reproduced photographically. Compare Anal. Boll., vol. XXXIX, p. 279.]. You would think you recognized in them the hand of St. Prochorus the Hagiostaurite [The Menologion of the Bodleian Library at Oxford; compare Anal. Boll., vol. XXXI, p. 302 – 304.], or, still more likely, of that John the Black who, at the command of St. Prochorus, for the use of the monastery of the Holy Cross, wrote the codex of the British Museum Add. 11281 [Compare J. Oliver Wardrop, in F. C. Conybeare, A Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1913), p. 400 – 401.]. But if this similarity is not wholly deceptive, the age of the Athonite manuscript must be brought down to about the middle of the eleventh century. Somewhat older than this, certainly, is the Georgian version of the Passion of St. Isbozetes which is preserved in it; yet it is by no means established that it is to be assigned to the ninth century, much less to the eighth Anal. Boll., vol. XL, p. 278 and following.. It certainly flowed from an Armenian exemplar, in which some things had already been cut away, or else they were cut out by the Georgian translator. Whether the mistakes and blemishes with which it bristles were admitted by the same man, or by the copyists, or finally by the editor or the typesetters, is uncertain. But since no way now lay open to the codex itself and its transcripts, if any exist anywhere, we considered it trifling to publish the text as it lies or healed by empirical art. Yet lest a witness of honest credibility, and perhaps the most ancient of all, should seem to have been wholly neglected, we have added the Georgian Passion, translated into Latin, at the foot of the pages beneath the Armenian exemplar.

[26] On the codices of the synaxarion. Of the Armenian synaxarion in the recension of Gregory Dserentz there are very many codices, scattered widely over the world. Whoever should gather their indiscriminate multitude in order to be able to see by how many new absurdities the elogium of St. Isbozetes has been corrupted in each, would waste his water and his labour. To correct in some fashion the common edition, which is openly and notably faulty, these codices were used, which could easily be collated in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris:

A = Armen. 182, mutilated at the end, now consisting of 543 paper leaves, 0m,37 × 0,265, in two columns, written in round script of the fifteenth century [F. Macler, Catalogue des manuscrits arméniens de la bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1908), p. 101 – 102.]; in which, on the 19th day of Mehekan, the 25th of February, there are announced, on fol. 333v, St. Susanna and our saint Isbozetes, whose elogium is found in the second place, fol. 334 – 34v;

B = Armen. 181, of paper, comprising 602 leaves, 0m,37 × 0,265, in two columns, and copied in round letters in the city of Kharberd in the Armenian year 893, of Christ 1444 Macler, volume cited, p. 101.; the elogium of St. Isbozetes is read on fol. 343 – 43v;

C = Armen. 183, of paper, consisting of 580 leaves, Om,365 × 0,245, not marked with numbers; the pages divided in two; round script, not later than the year 1488 Macler, volume cited, p. 102..

To these finally was added I = codex 120 of the monastery of St. James of the Armenians at Jerusalem, of paper, consisting of 358 leaves, 0m,303 × 0,217, in "notarial" script, in two columns, written in the year 1650. This comprises Lives of saints, among which, on fol. 270v – 271 (pages 540 – 41), is found an epitome of the Passion of St. Isbozetes: since the often-praised Robert P. Blake had freely offered it to us when he had found it, we have inserted it into our edition with a grateful and willing mind. This codex, had it not been copied by an exceedingly careless copyist, might perhaps have given us the very source which Gregory Dserentz used. It is most closely connected with the little narrative of the synaxarion; to which it adds a few things drawn from the Passion itself, not indeed from that archetype, but from the other, interpolated one, which we have conjectured was inscribed with the name of pseudo-Narses Compare above, no. 21, p. 201.. But in other places it is ineptly compressed, indeed even mutilated, so that the sentence lacks sense.

This one, then, being set aside, we have preferred A, which stands nearest to the genuine Passion and agrees with I in some decisive readings. Wherefore it had to be preferred, even though B and C, together with the common edition (= D), depart from it alike with remarkable consistency.

PASSION OF ST. ISBOZETES

Isbozetes, martyr in Persia. (S.)

From the codex of St. Lazarus at Venice 22513. Compare Preliminary Commentary, nos. 18 – 20.

The Passion of St. Isbozetes In Greek: Sositheus; compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 17, above, p. 200.

[1] Machos the magus In the reign of Chosroes son of Kavadh, king of the Persians, the confession of Christ began to grow stronger The codex, by a manifest error: had become more ardent., and not a few in the land of the Persians, and even in the very court of the king, met the death of heroes. At that time there was a certain man named Machos from that land, from the region which is called Pirisabora See Preliminary Commentary, no. 2, above, p. 191, note 7., and from the village whose name is Qunarastan Same place, note 8.. His parents were ministers of the fire. He himself, moreover, had been trained from infancy in the religion of the magi; he was strong in counsel, skilled in the doctrine of the fire-worshippers, and prudent of mind Unless it is to be understood: versed in the mysteries.. He by some chance came to the camp of the king, and there was present at the execution of a certain holy martyr whose name was Gregory. By the example of Gregory the martyr Astonished at the boldness of the hero, and emulating his faith with pious zeal, he said in his heart: "Lord, God of the Christians, look upon me; make known to me the way in which I should walk [Ps. 142, 8. A pagan is introduced speaking these words, certainly with the easy indulgence of readers.]; open to me, as also to your hero, the door of your mercy, that I may be made worthy of your kingdom, who are Lord of heaven and earth."

[2] That same night a wonderful dream appeared to him, and by divine illumination as though he himself were present in a holy church, and a certain man clothed in a white garment, showing himself to him, said to him: "Blessed are you, who have been made worthy of so illustrious a church, and who will henceforth have faith in God the creator of heaven and earth, and in the Son of equal power with him, and in the Spirit of equal might. See that you learn these things thoroughly from the tradition of the holy Gospel." On waking he understood the dream; he began to believe with his whole heart, he is drawn to the faith. and said: "The God of the Christians is the true God." And from then on he came to doubt the religion of the magi. And so from there he moved to the land of Sunitis See Preliminary Commentary, no. 3, above, p. 192, note 10.; where he gave himself to listening to the sacred books. Having stayed there a few months, he went on into Armenia, and when he had come to the canton of Airarat [It was constant usage among the Armenians that the region of Aïraraṭ was called a "canton", not a province. What the reason for this name was Hübschmann explains, Armenische Ortsnamen, volume cited, p. 279 and following.], he lived at Dvin See Preliminary Commentary, no. 4, above, p. 193., the principal city of the Armenians, admitted among the magi of a certain synarch of Armenia Same place, no. 5, p. 193 – 94., whose name was Chosroes Peroz; but he cared nothing for the religion of the magi. Now it happened in the winter season, While he is present at the rites of the magi, in the month Mehekan, at the beginning of the month according to the Persians, that they, according to their custom, were offering an impure [So our Georgian, who read instead of On this obscure gloss we spoke in the Preliminary Commentary, no. 6, above, p. 194, with note 4. L. Alishan thinks that by it is signified a certain oily liquid which was customarily used so that the sacred fire might burn more fiercely. vol. I, p. 467, note 3. Compare the testimony of Strabo below, note 8.] sacrifice to the fire in the house of the synarch. The blessed Machoš too was present among them at the shameful play [Properly: tale or proverb. It can also be translated, and perhaps more truly: mystery, or secret; as if the Syriac had been rendered drowsily by the Armenian.], the force of the conflagration with the band of the mouth [Word for word: muzzled, or bound at the mouth. That is, Machož had put on that veil called of old païtidāna, then pēnōm, today padam, with which the magi of the Persians were accustomed to cover their lips and nostrils in performing their rites. Strabo the geographer, who had himself seen the worshippers of fire (πυραίθους) in Cappadocia, in describing their ceremonies relates this: ἔστι δὲ καὶ πυραιθεῖα, σηκοί τινες ἀξιόλογοι· ἐν δὲ τούτοις μέσοις βωμός, ἐν ᾧ πολλή τε σποδός, καὶ πῦρ ἄσβεστον φυλάττουσιν οἱ Μάγοι καὶ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν δὲ εἰσιόντες, ἐπᾴδουσιν ὥραν σχεδόν τι πρὸ τοῦ πυρὸς τὴν δέσμην τῶν ῥάβδων ἔχοντες, τιάρας περικείμενοι πιλωτὰς καθεικυίας ἑκατέρωθεν μέχρι τοῦ καλύπτειν τὰ χείλη τὰς παραγναθίδας. Geographia, book XV, ed. Meineke (Leipzig, 1898), p. 1022. Compare A. V. Williams Jackson, Die Iranische Religion, in Handbuch der Iranischen Philologie, volume cited, p. 702; and C. de Harlez, Avesta, livre sacré du Zoroastrisme, in Bibliothèque Orientale, vol. V (Paris, 1881), p. CLXX – CLXXI; where also the veil in question

you will find drawn from the description of Abraham Anquetil-Duperron. In his words also J. Ménant described the rite which is preserved today by the fire-worshippers of India, Les Parsis, in Annales du Musée Guimet, volume cited, p. 104 and following. A picture of the veil padam, p. 70. On the name, Chr. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 830 – 31.]. Then the flame rising from the fat […θύουσι, τῷ μὲν πυρί, προστιθέντες ξηρὰ ξύλα τοῦ λέπους χωρὶς πιμελὴν ἐπιτιθέντες ἄνωθεν. Strabo, place cited, p. 1021.] reached the ceiling of the house and set it on fire. But the magi who had gathered to sacrifice tried to put out the fire [Although these two members are rather feebly joined, you would think that in the archetype they were set ἀντιθετικῶς against each other in order to mock the Persians, who wished to smother the fire which they had gathered to worship.], and could not, and rushing outside they reported the matter. (Then) he who was chiliarch [Compare the gloss of Hesychius. Ἀζαραπατεῖς οἱ εἰσαγγελεῖς παρὰ Πέρσαις. In Persia indeed the hazārapat or hazārabedh κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν was the supreme civil magistrate. Compare Christensen, work cited, p. 32. The Armenian translators of the New Testament render for χιλιάρχῳ (Mk. 6, 21; and elsewhere); ἐπιτρόπῳ (Lk. 8, 3; Gal. 4, 2); οἰκονόμῳ (1 Cor. 4, 1 and elsewhere). Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, p. 174.]

of the Armenians, on hearing the shouting of the crowd, at once ran to the door of the church and compelled the ministers to take up the holy cross and carry it to (that) house, in case the fire might perhaps be driven off by it: for, as the distress pressed upon him, he believed against his will. He marvels that it was driven off by the power of the cross. And so the ministers, taking up the sign of the holy cross, made their way to the place in haste. And when they came within sight of the house, the flame, which had already spread widely, was utterly extinguished. This signal wonder, worked in the land of Armenia by the venerable cross, was a joy to the faithful, but a mockery to the religion of fire. The wife of the synarch, indeed, having seen the thing, sent a messenger to the ministers of the holy and wonder-working cross and gave them very many thanks.

But the blessed Machoš, Having professed himself a Christian before the people when he had understood so great a miracle, broke in pieces [George the Persian too, in his last prayer, giving thanks to God, declares that he broke the baresman in pieces and threw it into the fire. Bedjan, Histoire de Mar-Jabalaha, volume cited, p. 539.] the hammer which [Text: the hammer which (plural), with the number varying. See Preliminary Commentary, no. 18, above, p. 200. Strabo: τὰς δ᾽ἐπῳδὰς ποιοῦνται πολὺν χρόνον ῥάβδων μυρικίνων λεπτῶν δέσμην κατέχοντες. Meineke, volume cited, p. 1021; compare the preceding note. Compare Jackson, place cited. The baresman of the magi was described by C. de Harlez, volume cited, p. CLXV (see the picture at p. CLXX); J. Darmesteter, Le Zend Avesta, vol. I, in Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. XXI (1892), p. LXXIII and following. Compare H. Oldenberg, translated by V. Henry, La religion du Veda (Paris, 1903), p. 291 – 93. The origin and use of the name was skilfully explained by Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, p. 947 – 49.] he used in the superstitions (of fire) [Text: he commanded, he ordered. But instead of , plainly read , he divined, he soothsaid, or perhaps , he divined or soothsaid by fire. Compare the Georgian.], and likewise threw far away the band of the mouth Properly: muzzle. See above, p. 205, note 7.. Then, coming forward, he took the censer from the hand of the deacon, burned incense before the holy cross, and showed openly the faith which he had in Christ. And escorting the ministers of the cross, he said: "Pray to God for me, for I too am a Christian." But the magi, when they had seen (these things), said to him: "How have you taken it upon yourself to do these things?" The blessed man said: "In truth I had long since believed (the teaching) of the Christians, and played the magus with a wavering mind. But now I openly proclaim my faith in Christ, and I will no longer be a minister of fire, since I have beheld all these wonders."

[3] The magi, going off from there at once, went to the prince of Armenia, and to Nichoracan the governor, who was called Nichoracan See Preliminary Commentary, no. 9, above p. 195., and falsely accused the blessed man. When he had been brought before him, the judge said to him: "Ho, you most abandoned man, why have you deserted the ancestral religion of the magi, so as to become a fool and a breaker of faith?" The blessed man answered and said: "This I sincerely confess about myself, O judge: it is twenty-five years since I followed a vain error; but now, having come to know the true God, I have forsworn the multitude of ancestral divinities. Accordingly, the deceits of the world will no longer move me from that faith: for I am ready to endure the torments that hang over me." first to chains The prince, blazing with anger, ordered the blessed man to be scourged twelve times Word for word: twelve doubles; compare the Syriac ., shaved off his beard and hair, and, having had the record of (his) examination written out, threw him into prison bound hand and foot. There the saint found a certain companion of his punishment Or: merciful toward him; compare the Georgian..

named Narses Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 10, above, p. 195., who had already for a long time been bound in prison for God's sake. From him the blessed man learned the holy faith and twenty psalms, and in this way he praised and prayed to God without ceasing.

After a short time had elapsed, (another) named Nabedes [In Armenian Nachapetn, which you would say in Greek: ὁ Πρόδρομος. See Preliminary Commentary, no. 11, above, p. 196.] was put in the place of Nichoracan. When he had taken his seat on the tribunal, the blessed Machoš was brought before him. Nabedes said: "How have you taken it upon yourself to desert your ancestral god and believe in that unknown Christ?" The blessed man said: "There is one God, creator of all things, who has care of all who act rightly; who, seeing my mind dissolved in the superstition of many gods, led me to the true knowledge of God." Nabedes, indignant, ordered him to be beaten severely. Then they bound him in iron chains and threw him into prison. He is baptized in prison But after he had spent three more years in prison, he asked that priest and takes the name Isbozetes. that he might receive the Lord's seal and that the name Isbozetes might be given him [Word for word: he asked from that priest the reception of the Lord's seal, that he might call him Isbozetes.], which in interpretation is rendered Adeodatus Or Theodotus., that is, saved by God See Preliminary Commentary, nos. 11, 18, above, pp. 196, 200.; the Holy Spirit thus giving the omen [Word for word: which the Holy Spirit also painted, or described. Certainly, if it were established that our Armenian used a Syriac document, you would say that instead of , by the Holy Spirit (on the part of the Holy Spirit), he read , which the Holy Spirit painted.]. And he was strengthened by the Spirit in prison; he stripped off his garments and gave them to the poor. He himself put on kid-skins and sandals. And thus, amid fasts and prayers, he kept vigils in perpetual psalmody, admirably discharging the monastic observance. When three more years had elapsed, After repeated cruelties, there succeeded to the place of Nabedes the one whom they called Chanarangen In Armenian; Qnarikn; compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 12, above, p. 190.. A certain scribe of his, having come to the prison, wished to deceive the blessed man by guile; he said to him: "Is the land of the Aryans [In Greek τὰς Ἀριανῶν, that is, of the Persians; on this name, Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, p. 25 – 26. Compare the Georgian version at this place.] not enough for you alone, since you have strayed from the religion of the magi and, given into captivity by yourself, have wandered far from your homeland and your religion alike?" The saint answered and said to him: "All things that lack sense Text: all unknown things, , passive, for , active, or by their nature serve the uses of craftsmen, while animals serve their owner: in no other way is it right for the human race also to serve its maker, (who) is the one God. Wherefore in ignorance I did indeed serve vanity; but when God had mercy on me, he took possession of my thought, bound it with love of his commandments, steeping it [Word for word: dyed, stained, unless indeed is put here for , which likewise signifies to immerse and to seal.] with the hope of his grace, which the perils of this life will not be able to change." When the registrar of the tribunal had heard these things, he sprang to his feet raging and began to beat him cruelly with a staff. Moreover he afflicted the blessed man with very many torments of every kind, so that he might yield to the religion of the magi.

[5] Meanwhile, when the king had heard of the vexations and the not few cruelties at last by the royal inquisitors, with which the procurators were afflicting the land of Armenia, he sent three princes faithful to him to review the affairs of this province. The first was named Nadoes [In Armenian Naṭoï; on this and the following names compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 12, above, p. 197.], who was called Drovandacan, the second Perozes, who was archimagus of the canton of Rayy, and the third Choiap, who was a minister of the king. When these, then, had come into Armenia, they restored many things to right order. One day, an assembly having been summoned in the forum, they had taken their seats on the tribunal to carry out the commands of the king, when certain impious men brought a denunciation to these princes and said: "There are in prison three men who, having deserted our religion, have devoted themselves to the religion of the Christians: a certain Narses of Rayy, a certain Isaac from Atropatene, and Isbozetes the Persian." These, then, (they) ordered to be brought. The archimagus said to Narses: "Why have you become a Christian?" The blessed man said: "My mother was a Christian; I myself have been faithful to Christ from boyhood; your sect I have never known at all." He questioned Isaac also; and he said: "I have been a Christian from infancy." But the blessed Isbozetes stood behind and in a low voice was chanting the sixth psalm: "Lord, rebuke me not in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath." Psalm. 6, 2.

Those two, then, having been dismissed, in vain by threats (the archimagus) said to Isbozetes: "Ho, you most wretched man, why have you deserted an illustrious sect to believe the ignoble teaching of the Christians, and again with a contumacious mind [Text: by urging or compelling. The Georgian, as elsewhere, evading the difficulty: you who compelled others to sacrifice, which coheres badly with the martyr's answer. Perhaps in Syriac there was written , "contumaciously", which the translator thought derived not from , he was refractory, contumacious, but from he compelled, urged, drove.

It seems, then, that the judge charged it as a crime against Isbozetes that he had performed the rites of the Persians when he was already estranged from them in mind and heart: which was a sacrilegious violation of the ceremonies and the religion. Compare Harlez, Avesta, p. CLXXXI.] sacrificed to the fire?" The saint said: "Indeed I sacrificed, and I know the teaching of the magi better than you. But if you will bid me speak and explain the case, you will learn how far the teaching of the Christians surpasses all other religions, having examined which myself, I have most certainly learned that the Christian religion is the only one that can save (a man) from dreadful death." When the archimagus had heard these things, he commanded the attendants to tear his tunic and

pull his cowl off (him). They battered the blessed man's head and tore out his beard by the roots.

[6] and he is tried by torments. Then (the princes) ordered the three blessed men to be kept under guard for three days; then, when they had summoned them again, they could not draw them over to their opinion. So, having withdrawn their food, they shut them up in a certain house, (into which) the archimagus ordered smoke to be let in through the whole night As if to avenge the fire whose rites they had spurned.. The saints, pressed by the distress, cried out, saying: "O God, come to our assistance; O Lord, make haste to help us." Psalm. 69, 2. And in this way they chanted psalms without ceasing until dawn. They had completed ten days in that prison, when on a certain night, Forewarned by a dream on the Lord's day [Understand: on the night which by our rite would be the vigil of the Lord's day. See Preliminary Commentary, no. 14, above, p. 198.], on which Isbozetes was to give forth his martyrdom, a vision (of this kind) was shown him: a certain man was carrying a rod in his hands, and when he had touched his head (with it), blood flowed down between his eyes. And three men clothed in light, appearing (to him), drove far away that man who had struck him, and placed on his head a crown brought of precious gems Word for word: of choice pearl.. On waking he told the thing to his companions, who understood that his hour was at hand. At daybreak there came the attendants Properly: faithful ones, in Syriac . who had come to the prison to lead the saints. And the prefect of the lictors, coming into the prison, 〈ordered the saint to be led to the tribunal [Something of this kind must be supplied at this place, which is certainly mutilated. Nor is that earlier phrase sufficiently understood: to lead the saints. Perhaps Narses and Isaac, to whom St. Isbozetes is said to have said farewell, were to be transferred to another place of custody. Or instead of , into the prison, should we read , out of the prison (that they might lead the saints out)? Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 13, above, p. 198.]. He, having greeted the brethren, went away, and as he walked, having begun the fourth psalm, he sang the fourth psalm from the prison to the place of the tribunal: "When I called upon you, you heard me according to your justice, and in distress you refreshed me."

[7] He is condemned to death. And as he finished the psalm, he came to the place of the tribunal. The Christians, having heard of the matter, all betook themselves there to watch the contest of the saint. Now St. Isbozetes stood before four [So, with the Georgian translator agreeing, our Armenian, as though in a decisive trial the authority of the former judges had to be completed.] judges. They had prepared three gibbets, and when these had been brought, the archimagus said to the saint: "Do you see this stake of yours, on which you are on the point of dying? Spare yourself, therefore, and do not persist in this obstinacy." The saint answered and said: "Nay, I cleave still more firmly to Christ, who is my hope. But do you carry out what you have been ordered concerning me." On the cross And so he ordered him to be put on the stake. The saint with a ready heart and a cheerful mind approached the stake. And they tore off and stripped from him the rags which he wore. The blessed man said: "This has been done justly; for the Son of my Lord, the only-begotten Saviour, when of his own will he suffered the punishment of the cross, was fixed naked to the cross, that he might clothe the nakedness of our first parent. He will strengthen me too, that I may overcome the snares of Satan in my body." And stretching himself out on the stake, he began to recite the forty-third psalm: "Arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us for your name's sake. Psalm. 43, 26 22. We are counted as sheep destined for sacrifice." And while the stake was being raised, the archimagus sent a messenger to him, in case he might perhaps come to his senses. (The saint) did not deign to give him an answer. He stood, then, fixed to the stake in the tribunal crowded with a multitude; and they pierced his sides with arrows.

[8] between two robbers, It happened moreover that on the same day two men condemned to death were to be put on stakes; and (they) brought these out with them also. One of these was of the community of the Huzaye. When they had brought him to the stake, he began to kiss the feet of the holy martyr, and taking dust mixed with the blood that dripped beneath the martyr, he put it in his bosom [Almost the same sign of piety is said to have been shown to St. George the Persian as he died by a certain boy of Beth Garmai; who likewise was badly mauled by the lictors. Bedjan, Histoire de Mar-Jabalaha, volume cited, p. 552 – 53.]. And while the prefect of the lictors was battering his head with his fists, they raised him on a stake at the right of the martyr, shot an arrow into him, and so he gave up his spirit [By a similar punishment were put to death, in the year 615, St. George the Persian (Bedjan, volume cited, p. 548 – 51); in the year 853, Solomon Sevordius, concerning whom below, on the 10th day of November, in the Acts of St. Constantine the Georgian. The same kind of death the martyr Iesusabran also seems to indicate in the prophecy which he is said to have uttered about his own death. Chabot, Archives des Missions scientifiques, volume cited, p. 568.]. The other was a Jew; who, as he was brought to the stake, besought the judges: "Do not destroy (me); I take up the magian religion." But since the judges paid no attention to him, he was raised on a stake at the left of the saint. And the blessed man, between two condemned to death, on a high place, in the sight of the sun and of all the people, after the likeness of Christ was offered as a holocaust. This came about by an admirable mystery, by which was recalled to memory the Lord's oracle in that truthful promise: "He who believes in me, the work that I do he also shall do; and he shall do even much greater things than these. John 14, 12" And the Apostle says: "Those whom he foreknew and predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son [Compare Preliminary Commentary, p. 192, note 4. This whole passage was shamelessly plundered by the hagiographer who invented the Passion of St. Ražden the Persian. Anal. Boll., vol. XXXIII, p. 315 – 16.] Rom. 8, 29.".

[9] He is crowned with an illustrious martyrdom. Thus (then) St. Isbozetes bravely gave forth his martyrdom, in the twenty-third year of King Chosroes; on the day which was the second of the month Kʻałocʻ, on the Lord's day, at the third hour Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 14.. Now (the archimagus) had ordered the body of the blessed man to be guarded on the stake; but with God's favour the faithful took away the body of the saint, and, wrapped in precious garments, laid it with illustrious honour in a tomb, keeping festival with immense gladness, since so splendid a light had gladdened the souls of the orthodox faithful. Wherefore Edition: because. to the Saviour of all, Jesus Christ our Lord, with the almighty Father and the Holy Spirit, are due praise (and) honour, now and always.

GEORGIAN PASSION OF ST. ISBOZETES

From the codex of the lavra of the Georgians on Athos 57, following the edition of Alexander Khakhanov.

Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 25.

On the 28th day of the month of July. The Passion of St. Isbozetes Izid bozid..

[1] In the reign of Chosroes, son of Kavadh, king of the Persians [(In the reign — of the Persians) these words in the codex run on with the heading.], the faith of the Christians shone out more and grew stronger; and not a few became illustrious for fortitude in the land of the Persians at the royal gate. There was at one time a certain man whose name was Mahašoṭ, in the same land of the Persians, from the village which was called Knarasṭan. His parents were ministers Or worshippers. of the fire; he himself had learned from infancy the doctrine of the magi, (in which) he made the greatest progress of all; he had been instructed by the ministers of the fire: for he was endowed with sharpness of wit. This man once, having come to the camp of the king, by some chance it happened that one of the martyrs, who was called Gregory, was being tortured. Astonished at the boldness of that most brave man, and envying him in his mind with a certain glorious emulation, he said: "Lord God of the Christians, look upon me; teach me the way in which I should walk, and open to me likewise the door of mercy, as to this your chosen one, that I may be made worthy of your kingdom, who are Lord of heaven and earth. Psalm. 142, 8."

[2] That very night a vision was shown him, as though he himself were present in a holy church, and a man appeared to him clothed in a white garment, who said to him: "Blessed are you, who have been made worthy of so illustrious a place, that through it you should believe in him who made heaven and earth, and in his only-begotten Son and in his Holy Spirit consubstantial with him, who with him made all things. But do you go and learn these things from the holy Gospel." On waking, then, he understood the vision, and believing with his whole mind he said within himself: "The God of the Christians is the true God." And from that time he began to doubt the religion of the magi. From there he moved into the land of Sunitis Sivnietisa. and gave himself to listening to the divine books. Having stayed there a few days, he went on from there into the land of Ararat Araraṭiss., settled at Dvin Dvins., the principal city of Armenia, and attached himself to a certain magus, a collector of taxes hamarcari., named Chosroes Peroz, and he held the religion of the magi in contempt. In the winter season, in the month Mehekan, by the rite of the Persians, the beginning of the months was held. And so they, according to their custom, performed the impure sacrifice of the religion of the fire-worshippers in the house of the synarch.

hamacari.. Now the blessed Mahašoṭ was standing by the fire among them and had shut his mouth Or: was keeping silent.. But as the flame of that fire rose up, the ceiling of the house caught fire and blazed. And so the magi, abandoning the sacrifice, did their utmost to put out the fire. They could not put out the fire, and rushing outside they began to cry aloud. And when the chiliarch azrapeṭsa. of Armenia heard the shouting of this tumult, he hastened to the door of the church, and urged the ministers of the church to take the sign of the cross and go to that house to put out the fire; and so, as the evil pressed upon him, he confessed (the faith) against his will. The ministers therefore carried out the venerable cross, and the flame began to subside until it was utterly extinguished. This signal wonder, worked in the land of Armenia by the venerable cross, was a joy to the worshippers of the true religion. The wife of the synarch hamacaris., when she had seen these things, gave very many thanks through a messenger to the ministers of the cross. But the blessed Mahašoṭ understood a miracle of this kind; he dashed to the ground and broke the hammer with which he practised divination, and likewise the bands of the mouth, and of his own accord, going up to the deacon, he took the censer from him, offered incense before the cross, and openly manifested his faith which he had in Christ. He escorted the ministers of the cross to the church Or: dismissed them. and addressed them thus: "Invoke the mercy of God upon me, for I too am a Christian." When the magi had seen this, they said to him: "How have you dared to do these things?" But the blessed man said to them: "Long since indeed I believed in Christ and doubted the religion of the magi. But now I confess Christ openly, and I am no longer a minister of fire."

[3] The magi, when they had seen this miracle, diligently informed the ethnarch eristavsa., who was called Nichoracan, and laid a (false) charge against the saint. And so they set him before that tyrant. And the tyrant said to him: "Pitiable man, why have you deserted the ancestral religion of the magi, and your vow

have foolishly broken?" The saint answered and said: "You have spoken true things about me, judge. For it is now five years since I have been leading an empty and shameful life; but now, having come to know the true God, I have forsworn the multitude of ancestral divinities. Accordingly the moments of this life will not be able to separate me from the true faith; for I am ready to expose myself to torments." The prince in anger ordered him to be scourged twelve times. They shaved off his hair and beard. And (the prince) wrote out his examination point by point, and threw the blessed man into prison bound hand and foot. In the prison the blessed man found one who would provide for him, (a certain man) named Narses, who for a long time had been worshipping Christ in that prison. From him he learned the true faith and the psalms of David; thus, then, he made prayer without ceasing.

[4] After a short time had elapsed they removed Nichoracan and sent Edition: he sent. in his place Nabedes Here and in what follows: Nachapeṭ.. He, sitting on the tribunal, summoned the blessed Mahašoṭ before him; and said to him: "How have you dared to desert the ancestral religion of the magi; and have believed in that unknown Christ?" The blessed man said: "There is one God, creator of all things, who sees into the mind of those who love the good; who looked upon my soul, languishing in the impiety of those who worship many gods, and brought me over to the service of the true God." Nabedes, indignant, ordered him to be beaten severely, and threw him into prison bound with the same iron chains. In that prison he was again for three years; in the same he received baptism, and he asked the priest that the name Isbozetes Iziṭ boziṭ. might be given him, which they interpret: "brought up by God", that is: "delivered by God". The Holy Spirit moreover strengthened him in the prison. Thereupon he stripped off his garments and gave them to the poor; and he himself put on kid-skins and sandals σανδάλια.; praying he kept vigil, fasting he chanted psalms without intermission, and in an alternation of this kind he admirably discharged the monastic life. When three years had elapsed, they removed that Nabedes and put in his place another, who was called Knar anid prion See above, p. 196, note 11.. He, coming into the prison, resolved to deceive the blessed man; he said to him: "Is the land of the Medes [; as if the Georgian had read in the Armenian exemplar; on which name Hümschmann, Armenische Grammatik, p. 52. From both texts it seems we should restore: Is the land of the Persians and the Medes not enough for you alone.] not enough for you alone, who of your own accord have so shamelessly strayed from the religion of the magi and have become a captive (far) from the army of the Persians?" The saint answered and said: "All things whatsoever that have been made obey their maker; animals serve the one who feeds them; in no other way is it right for men also to serve God their creator. Hitherto, then, I have obeyed vanity. But since the Lord has looked upon me and had mercy on me, he has fastened me (with nails) to the love of his commandments; he has changed me by the grace of his hope Edition: by hope., from which the perils of this empty life will not be able to sever me." When the prince of the council had heard these things, he rose up in indignation, beat him cruelly, and afflicted the saint with every kind of torment, so as to subject him to the religion of the magi. But he made still more progress in the good contest.

[5] At this time the king heard that the Armenians had suffered very many vexations and hardships; and so he sent there three princes faithful (to him). The first was named Avṭadrovandacani See Preliminary Commentary, above, p. 197, note 5.; the second Peroz, who was prince of the magi of the land of Reus Same place, note 3.; and the third was called Paṭa Read paḫa; which is already not far from ḫoiap., who was a minister of the king. These, then, came into Armenia and restored things to right order. One day they held an assembly in the forum, and, sitting on the tribunal in accordance with the king's command, they examined those who were detained in prison. 〈And they said to them: "There are men in prison These or more words like them have fallen out because of homoeoteleuton.〉 who have deserted our religion and become Christians; one named Narses, of Rayy, Isaac from Atropatene aṭrcanit., and Isbozetes Iziṭ boziṭ. the Persian." These, then, the prince of the magi ordered to be brought, and he said to Narses: "Why have you become a Christian?" He said: "My mother was a Christian, and I myself have been a Christian from boyhood; your religion I have never known at all." He questioned Isaac also, and he said: "From my infancy I have been a Christian." Psalm. 6, 2. But the blessed Isbozetes Izid bozid. stood behind them and said in a low voice: "Lord, rebuke me not in your fury." And so they brought forward the blessed man, and that man said to him: "O pitiable one, why have you deserted a most illustrious religion and believed in this ignoble religion of the Christians, you who once used to compel others to sacrifice to the fire See the notes to the Armenian Passion.?" The saint said: "So it is; I once sacrificed by the rite of the magi; and I was more learned than you. But if you will bid me, I will speak, and you will understand how much more excellent the Christian religion is than all those observances, having examined which I perceived that the Christian religion alone avails to deliver from eternal death." When the prince of the magi had heard these things, he commanded his attendants to tear his tunic. And they pulled the cowl from his head. He ordered his head to be battered. They tore out his beard entirely.

[6] Then he ordered the three blessed men to be kept under guard for three days. And after three days he summoned them again, and could not bend them. And so he ordered them to be thrust into one house, and neither food nor water to drink to be supplied to them, and through the whole night he suffocated them with smoke (let in). But the saints, strengthened (in mind), cried to God Edition: from God. and said: "O God, come to our assistance; O Lord, make haste to help us." Psalm. 69, 2. And in this way they chanted psalms without intermission until dawn. And when ten days had elapsed, on a certain night of the Lord's day on which St. Isbozetes Iziṭ-boziṭ. was to depart, a wonderful vision was shown him: a certain man who held a scourge in his hands split open his head, and blood flowed down between his eyes. Then three other men appeared to him, clothed in light; who drove out that man who had struck him with the scourge, made ready a crown of precious pearls, and placed it on his head. And when he awoke, he told the thing to his companions, who understood that his hour had come. At daybreak his torturers came into the prison and led the saint out. He bade farewell to the brethren and recited this psalm: "When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me." Psalm. 4, 2.

[7] And as he finished this prayer, he came to the tribunal in a conspicuous place Word for word: to the council (tribunal) of the spectacle.. The Christians, having heard of the matter, all came together running to watch his fortitude. Now the blessed Isbozetes Iziṭ-boziṭ. stood before four judges. They had prepared two gibbets, which were brought before him. The prince of the magi said to the saint: "Do you see these stakes on which you are to die? Free yourself; and do not persist in this obstinacy of yours." The saint answered and said: "For my part I cleave still more constantly to Christ. But do with me whatever you will." And he ordered him to be led away to the stake. The saint therefore set out with a brave heart and a cheerful face. And when they had brought him to the stake, they stripped him of the garments with which he was clothed. The saint said: "Justly has it been done thus; for my Lord and the Son of God was of his own will fixed naked to the cross, to cover the nakedness of the first-created man. He will strengthen me today, that the snares of the devil may be broken." And when they had stretched him on the stake, he began the psalm: "Arise, O God, help us, and deliver us for your name's sake; for we are counted as sheep destined for slaughter." They had already raised the stake when the archimagus sent a messenger to him and said: "Come to your senses, and be saved." Psalm 43, 26, 22. But he scorned his words and gave him no answer; but he was fastened (with nails) to the stake amid the multitude of onlookers Word for word:. And they pierced his sides with arrows.

[8] Moreover they put two men condemned to death on crosses with him. One (of these) was of the community of the Huzaye; whom they brought to be crucified. And he began to kiss the holy martyr of Christ; he took the earth which was mixed with his flowing blood and put it in his bosom. But the lictors battered his head, and put him on a cross at the right of the martyr and pierced him with arrows; and so he gave up his soul to Christ. The other was a Jew. When he had been brought to be hung on a stake, he began to cry out to the judge, and said: "Do not destroy me, and I will profess the religion of the magi." The judges paid no attention to his words; and they hung him on a stake at the left of the saint. And so the blessed man, fixed to the cross, and that between those two hung (on gibbets), was as a holocaust before the sun Edition: that, ; read: . and the whole multitude. In which there was a wonderful design, that the sign of the Lord's cross might be recalled to memory, in accordance with what the truthful God had promised: "He who believes in me, the work that I do he also shall do, and he shall do even greater than that. John 14, 2." And the Apostle says: "Those whom he foreknew and called beforehand, that they might be conformed to his Son." Rom. 8, 29.

[9] Thus then St. Isbozetes Iziṭ - boziṭ. suffered bravely, in the twentieth year of Chosroes king of the Persians, in the month of July, on the second (day) [Compare the heading of the Georgian Passion, and Preliminary Commentary, no. 22, above, p. 201.], on the Lord's day, at the third hour. And (the judge) commanded that the body of the saint be guarded The Georgian word also signifies: to bury, or to hide.; but the faithful, with the favourable will of God, took it away and wrapped it in precious garments; they held a great festival and proclaimed the praises of God; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

PASSION OF ST. ISBOZETES BY PSEUDO-NARSES

Isbozetes, martyr in Persia. (S.)

From the Armenian synaxarion of Gregory Dserentz, following the codices of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris Armen. 182 (= A), Armen. 181 (= B), Armen. 183 (= C), and of St. James of the Armenians at Jerusalem 120 (= I), with the common edition (= D) collated. Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 26.

On the 19th of the month omits B, C, D. Mehekan and the 25th of February (mensis ec XXV) omits I.

The Passion of St. Susanna and of Isbozetes, who is Adeodatus [(Passio - Adeodatus) pass. sancti Izbozetae Adeodati B, C, D; martyrium Isbozetae (Jisṭbouzṭaj) martyris qui dicitur Ad. I.]

[1] Isbozetes, formerly a magus, Today the passion of St. Isbozetes — which is translated Adeodatus (hodie - Adeodatus) omits B, C, D, I. — in those years when there reigned in Persia

Chosroes son of Kavadh and in Greece Justi〈ni-〉an the Thracian (et in Graecia - Thrax) omits I.. At this time many in Persia became martyrs for the faith nomen B, C, D. of Christ; among whom also a certain man named Gregory suffered martyrdom with the greatest fortitude (mart. - est) omits I.. When a certain man of the race of the sacrificers, named Machoš, from the city of Dvin (ex - Dubion) omits I., had seen this, he began to hold the magian religion in suspicion and (magicam - et) omits B, C, D. to doubt the faith of the magi [(de fide - coepit) et anxius animo fidem magorum abominabatur B, C; et anx. an. a pueritia indignabatur D; et veniens habitavit in Dubion urbe Armeniorum apud magum persam, dubitans de eorum fide I.]. One day hoc tempore I. the magi were offering sacrifice in the fire-temple quod est ignis templum adds B, C, D; omits I. of Dvin omits C, I. et Machoš cum illis adds I., when the flame, rising upward, set the building on fire incendere coepit I.; and they could not put out the fire ortus estque tumultus in urbe adds I.. When the chiliarch of Armenia had heard vidisset B, C, D. of this, he hastened to the church, and taking with him the priests with the life-giving omits B, C, D. (and) holy sign of the cross and sancto adds C, D. the Gospel, he went to the building (cum - contulit) vivificam (ac) sanctam crucem et evangelium I.. And straightway by the power of the holy cross the fire there was extinguished. For which reason (quam-causam) omits I. the magi sacrificuli I. gave them thanks. having forsworn the superstition of the Persians, But Machoš abandoned the celebration of the sacrifice, took a censer in his hand, and walked before the sanctam adds I. cross as far as the church. And so quod cum vidissent B, C, D; et tus adolebat et confestim digressi I. the magi accused him before the prefect of the city; having seized ligatum B, C, D; omits I. him, then, they brought him to judgment. And he boldly confessed the faith of Christ and mocked their religions vanas irrisionibus perstrinxit I.. Wherefore the judge, indignant, ordered him to be handed over to prison; they tore out his beard, thrown into prison (indignatus-graviter) indignati B, C, D. they battered him and threw him into prison (barbam-coniecerunt) avulsis crinibus et barba impactisque gravibus plagis I..

[2] He is baptized. Now there was in this prison a certain monk named Narses propter christianorum B, C, D.; from whom Machoš daily learned the faith of Christ ritusque christianorum B, C, D. and the psalms of David [(erat-Davidis) in carcerem ingressus invenit religiosum quemdam nomine Narsetem, a quo didicit fidem christianorum et psalmos atque una orabant nocte et interdiu I.]. After three years menses B, C, D., Machoš was baptized in prison and was called Isbozetes [Isṭbuziṭ first hand, Iziṭ buzit corrected A; Iziṭ buziṭ B; Jisṭbuzid C; Jiziṭ buzid D.], which is vertitur B, C, D. Adeodatus; and in prison he also took up the monastic order [(Isbozetes-suscepit) Adeodatus; deinde religiosus factus est et cilicium induit I.]. After four multos I. years menses B, C, D., however, there came three men sent by the king of the Persians to restore to their rights those who had (suffered) vexation in the land of Armenia. One day (die quodam) qui I., when, sitting on the tribunal, they were holding an inquiry about the captives, it was reported to them that there had been for a long time (iam pr.) omits I. in prison three men who had passed over from the religion of the magi to the Christian: Machoš, Isaac and Narses. When they had had them brought before them and questioned them, Having again confessed the faith they found that Isaac and Narses had been Christians by birth (chr. natu) christianorum progeniem B, C, D. from infancy (ab inf.) omits C., and that Machoš alone had been converted from the faith of the Persians a Persarum ritu I. to the Christian religion (chr. religionem) Armeniorum fidem B, C, D.. Wherefore contumeliis eum affecerunt adds B, C, D. they tore his monastic garment, cut his cowl into small pieces, spat in his face and struck him with blows, he is put on the cross. tore out his beard, beat him with their fists, and after very many insults ordered him to be put on the cross [(Machoš-iusserunt) et consciderunt sancti Adeodati religiosam vestem, quem multiplici cognitione et disquisitione examinatum in crucem agi iusserunt I.].

[3] The Armenians stand around him as he dies Now the catholicos See Preliminary Commentary, no. 21, above, p. 201. of the Armenians domnus Moyses B, C, D., taking with him all the priests with the cross and the Gospel, came with lighted tapers and censers and stood opposite to (watch) the contest of the saint, beseeching God to give him patience and strength (patientiam-virtutem) virtutem perferendi tormenta crucis B, C, D. [(catholicus-daret) verum archiepiscopus (princeps episcoporum) Armeniae sacerdotesque his auditis, eminus constiterunt coram cruce sancti cum sancto signo Dei susceptore cereisque lucentibus Deum precati sunt ut sancto virtutem daret I.]. And bringing him beatum in tribunal adds I. they stripped him and (adducentes-atque) nudantes B, C, D. fixed him to a stake with nails; and with him two other men, the one a Persian, the other a Jew, like those robbers, on account of their crimes (tamquam-facinora) propter eorum scelera tamq. latr. illos B, C, D; omits I.. And the Persian accedens adds B, C, D; accessit et adds I. fell down at the feet of the saint beati I; Isbozetae (Jisṭbuzṭi) adds B, C, D., and taking dust mixed with his blood he smeared it on his face, saying: "Remember me, saint of God." This he did after the likeness of that robber on the right (quod-latronis) omits I.. The executioners seized him violently and put him on a cross at the right of the saint; and the Jew at the left. He cried out again and again (iter. iter.) omits I. that he would go over to the religion of the magi, and he was not heard. Then they pierced St. Izbozetes omits I. on the cross with arrows: and he ad Christi exemplum adds B, C, D., praying for his torturers 〈in cruce adds C〉 precabatur et sic B, C, D., gave up his spirit to God [(qui pro-tradidit) qui orans pro tortoribus suis tradidit spiritum suum Deo omnium spei, vita functus I.], on the Lord's day, at the third hour.

[4] And they see splendidly to his funeral. The Christians, going to the princes principem C. of the city, asked leave to take him away and bury him (illum-sepeliendi) sepeliendi corpus sancti B, C, D.. They gave permission to take him away. Straightway, then, the patriarch came, and with him the priests and the people [(confestim-populus) adveniens igitur catholicus cum universo ordine sacerdotum B, C, D.], and they carried out the body of the saint omits D. Isbozetes Iziṭbouzṭi A; omits B, C, D. and transferred it into the great praecipuam B, C, D. church and illic magno cum honore adds B, C, D. laid it in a little chest with psalms and blessing [(christiani-benedictione) et mature (illuc) se conferentes episcopi cum sacerdotibus et populis extulerunt corpus sancti et in magnam ecclesiam translatum cum psalmis et benedictione deposuerunt in arculam I.]. And cutting the cross into pieces, they distributed it to all the faithful cupidissime petentibus adds I.. This was accomplished [(perf.-hoc) defunctus est sanctus Adeodatus Isbozetes (Iziṭbuziṭ A; Jiziṭ buziṭ C, D) B, C, D.] in the first year by the Armenian reckoning of times, while the patriarch lord Moses See Preliminary Commentary, no. 21, above, p. 201; compare no. 15, p. 199. was sitting as catholicos (perfectum-cathol.) omits I..

[5] The attestation of Narses. And I, Narses, companion and comrade in punishment of St. Isbozetes Jiziṭbuzṭaj A; Jiziṭ buzṭi B, C; Iztbuzti D. Adeodatus, wrote this history to the glory of God [(in poena-Dei) sodalis et sancti in poena socius composui sancti historiam ad gloriam Christi … festum eorum agitur februarii XXII; qui pro festum sibi agentibus intercedunt, ut cruciatus intolerabiles effugiant et salutem adipiscantur I.].