ON ST. ABDAS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AND MANY OTHERS WHO SUFFERED IN THE SAME PERSECUTION,
IN PERSIA.
About the year CCCXX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Abdas, bishop and martyr, in Persia (S.)
Others in Persia
BY J. S.
§ I. St. Abdas is probably the same as Abdias, Abdæus, Audius, commemorated on this day in the Fasti.
[1] On this day, both in the Sirletian Menology and in the printed Menæa, the same martyr, so far as appears, is announced twice, [who, though held as it were twofold in the Greek Fasti, seems to be the same martyr:] with the name slightly changed, as though he were twofold. Hear the Menology:
On the same day, the birthday of Abdæus, who, beaten with thorny rods, followed Christ the Lord crowned with thorns. The Menæa agree: On the same day St. Abdæus, beaten with thorny rods, dies. These verses follow:
Ῥάβδων ἀκάνθας μάρτυς Ἀβδαῖος φέρει Στεφθέντα τιμῶν ταῖς ἀκάνθαις Δεσπότην.
The martyr Abdæus endures the thorns of the rods, Honoring the Lord crowned with thorns.
Then the Menology, as though of another, records this: And of the holy martyr Audius the bishop, in the time of Isdigerdes king of the Persians. This most holy Audius, being detained by the chief magus of the Persians, when he refused to sacrifice to the sun, is beaten with rods over his whole body, so that, being carried back by the executioners as one dead, he shortly after delivered up his spirit to the Lord. The Menæa agree, in which a plainly similar announcement and a similar eulogy are found, but without any verses. But now, that this man is the same as Abdæus is persuaded first by the likeness of the punishment, secondly by the fact that in the other Greek Fasti only one is commemorated. Thirdly, since in the Menæa there is no eulogy attached to the former, but no verses are found attached to the latter, a suspicion arises that the verses were by an error torn away from the eulogy, and that thence arose the occasion of doubling the announcement, perhaps because the name was found written one way in the verses and another in the eulogy, although in truth the change of name is very slight, and such as is found also in the Basilian Menology, where he is called Abdias, which name has something of each.
[2] the eulogy of Abdias from the Basilian Menology, Further, in the praised Menology of the emperor Basil there is at this day such a eulogy of Abdias the martyr: The holy martyr Abdias, a Persian by nation, a Christian by profession, when he was giving all his labor to teach all men, and by his exhortations to lead them to receive the true faith of our Savior Jesus Christ, being seized by the prince of the Magi, is ordered, having abjured Christ, to adore the sun and fire: for these the Persians worshipped as gods. Which he abominating, he is beaten with harsh rods of pomegranate on his belly and loins. And thus, having been beaten and tormented from morning to midday, he is carried on the shoulders of the lictors into his own house half alive: and a little after he delivered up his holy and blessed soul to the Lord, showing to his last breath the highest gladness of soul, because he had been counted worthy to undergo martyrdom and death for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. After this the Christians, receiving his precious relics, laid them in a tomb.
[3] In the same Menology at the day XXXI of March there is commemorated Abdas the bishop with Benjamin the deacon, [another eulogy of Abdas, who is distinct from the Abdas celebrated on the XVI of May,] who suffered, at different times however, but in the same persecution, under Isdegerdes king of the Persians, as Theodoret relates in the Ecclesiastical History book 5 chap. 39. Baronius in the annotations to the Roman Martyrology on the day XVI of May believed that this Abdas the bishop is the same as Audas the bishop, who on that day is announced among the Greeks with many other martyrs crowned in Persia. Our Henschen acquiesced in Baronius at the XXXI of March, where he wrote of St. Benjamin, and deferred St. Abdas among the Prætermissi to the XVI of May, on which he is indeed announced in the Roman Martyrology. But when Henschen came to the XVI of May, and had more diligently surveyed the Acts of the Persian martyrs who are commemorated on that day by the Greeks, he changed his opinion, and believed that those commemorated on that day suffered under Sapor, and are therefore necessarily distinct from Abdas and the others who suffered under Isdegerdes. The studious reader will not doubt about this matter, if only he will compare what was written by Henschen at the XVI of May, or tom. III of that month pag. 574, with what I am about to give here: for I believe the Abdas celebrated on the XXXI of March to be no other than the Abdæus, Audius or Abdias of this day, for reasons to be given below.
[4] These things being noted, I subjoin the eulogy which the Basilian Menology has at the XXXI of March, from the same, a eulogy: so far as it pertains to our purpose: He (Abdas) flourished in Persia in the reign of Theodosius the younger. But after he had overthrown the temple of fire, he was seized and brought to the king: who at first indeed with great mildness exhorted him to rebuild the temple. But when he said that this could not be done, the king, sending forth a mandate, destroyed all the churches of the Christians. And hence took its beginning the persecution against the Christians, in which the whole generation of the faithful was carried off by various torments: of whom the most holy Abdas first ended his life by the sword. Thereafter through thirty whole years many martyrs shone forth, among whom were wealthy men, who after various torments were beheaded. A longer eulogy is found on the same day in the printed Menæa; but I do not adduce it, because the martyrdom is reported by Theodoret, from whom the collectors of the Fasti drew.
[5] But now, that Abdias or Audius the bishop is none other than that Abdas on whose occasion Isdegerdes stirred up the persecution, that this Abdias and Abdas are again the same, as is proved I gather from a very ancient manuscript Constantinopolitan Synaxary, which Sirmond once had, and which belongs to the college of the Society of Jesus at Paris, now called that of Louis the Great. For in it at this day, the V of September, is found an ample eulogy, in which Abdas or Audas is called bishop of Persia, and at the same time the martyrdom of Benjamin the deacon is commemorated. And the earlier matters, that is, the time and occasion of the martyrdom, are reported in the same manner as in the other Fasti at the XXXI of March; but the martyrdom itself, or the death inflicted on Abdas by the Persians, plainly agrees with what is narrated in the other Fasti of the Greeks about the death of Abdias. And so it is certain that the author of this Synaxary favors my opinion; and since he seems more ancient and more accurate than the collectors of the printed Menæa and of the Basilian Menology were, I judge that his authority is to be preferred; especially since it is established well enough that the same Saints are not rarely repeated in the Menæa as though they were different, which may here also have happened in the Basilian Menology. Nor was occasion wanting for doubling Abdas: for since he alone was slain at the beginning of the persecution, he alone could first be announced; and since he had afforded the occasion of the persecution, he could be commemorated again with the many others who suffered in the same persecution: and I suspect that this in fact was done.
[6] from the eulogy of the Constantinopolitan Synaxary: Wherefore I follow the opinion of the praised Synaxary as the more probable, and subjoin in Latin the whole eulogy so far as it belongs here. Having prefixed the announcement of Abdas bishop of Persia and Benjamin the deacon, the author goes on to speak thus of the former: He contended in the time of Theodosius the younger in Persia, Isdegerdes reigning there. For after, teaching many things, he did not persuade the Persians to abstain from the worship of idols, being kindled with a burning fervor, he burnt the temple of fire in which the kings of the Persians sacrificed. Being seized therefore, and first subjected to many torments, then beaten over his whole body by four soldiers with sharpened rods of pomegranate, and cast into his own house for dead, he shortly delivered up his blessed soul to the Lord. Presently it is added that the most savage persecution of thirty years was begun by him, of which below from Theodoret; and finally the martyrdom of Benjamin the deacon is narrated, of which we treated at the XXXI of March.
[7] he was put to death here by a grievous punishment. Of the manner of his death some doubt may be had, because in the Basilian Menology and in the verses of the Menæa, in both places at the XXXI of March, he is said to have been beheaded, and because Theodoret says only that he was ordered by the king to be put to death. But I suspect that this silence of Theodoret afforded occasion for the conjecture of a head cut off, because that kind of death is more usual than the rest. Wherefore the manner of death here distinctly reported appears to me far more probable, both because it could not so easily have been invented by conjecture, and because the Menæa and the Basilian Menology also relate the same at this day, and finally because from the cruelty of the persecution it is exceedingly probable that a most grievous punishment was inflicted on Abdas, who had violently exasperated the minds of the Persians by overthrowing the temple. There is added the authority of Theophanes, to be praised at num. XI, who testifies that Abdas was afflicted with various torments. And so, in my judgment, one would not say rightly enough that rather, on account of the different manner of death, two Martyrs almost of the same name are to be posited: for the authority of the monuments alleged is not so great as to make this probable enough to me against the authority of the Synaxary given.
§ II. Whether the Persian persecution was under Isdegerdes, and continued without interruption under his successors: the time of Abdas's martyrdom, his episcopal see, his other deeds.
The discord of writers about the author of this persecution: Socrates, Nicephorus and others do not attribute the beginning of the persecution in which Abdas suffered to Isdegerdes, but to his son Varanes, or Vararanes, as Socrates calls him, writing thus at chap. 18: But among the Persians, when king Isdigerdes was dead, who had by no means persecuted the Christians living there, his son Vararanes, when he had obtained the kingdom by right of succession, being led on by the counsel of the magi, grievously harassed the Christians, inflicting on them Persian punishments and torments. Nicephorus at chap. 19, although he saw Theodoret's History no less than Socrates's, since he so plainly put together his own out of the narrative of both that he uses almost the same sentences, nevertheless preferred Socrates's opinion, and likewise attributed the beginning of the persecution to Varanes. But Theodoret was so near in place and time that he is to be preferred to both; and he narrates so distinctly that the persecution was begun under Isdegerdes and continued under Vararanes and Isdegerdes II, that we cannot deny him credit in these matters, especially since he has agreeing with him Theophanes, and Cyril the writer of the Life of St. Euthymius, to be praised below. Pagi at the year 414 embraces that opinion, and thinks that the persecution was begun in that very year 414, that is, about six years before the death of Isdegerdes, and continued without interruption for thirty years.
[8] Assemani in the Oriental Library tom. 1, in St. Marutha bishop of Tagrit, Assemani judges that the persecution was stirred up by Isdegerdes, who wrote both of the earlier persecution under Sapor and of this one begun under Isdegerdes and continued under his successors, at pag. 182 endeavors somehow to reconcile the disagreement of the authors alleged. For after the praised writers who are alleged for one opinion or the other — among whom is also Agathias book 4 pag. 136, and Dionysius patriarch of the Jacobites in his Chronicle, who embraced Socrates's side — he writes thus: These authors are reconciled if it be said that a persecution was indeed stirred up by Isdegerdes on Abdas's account, but was soon lulled to sleep (for what Pagi affirms, that it was continued until Isdegerdes's death, he proves by no fit witness); but that it was renewed by Vararanes at the beginning of his reign, and as the day went on was increased the more; especially after Vararanes undertook an expedition against the Romans, and frequently joined battle with them. I strongly suspect that this opinion was drawn from Amr, an Oriental writer of the XIV century, whom Assemani himself elsewhere frequently disapproves and refutes. For in tom. 3 pag. 371 he alleges the words of Amr, writing of Jaballaha archbishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, where among other things he speaks thus: A little after, Jezdegerdes, being indignant against the Christians, ordered the churches to be destroyed
. For which cause, being again seized by a pain of the head from on high, he summoned Jaballaha once more: and growing strong again by his prayers, he began to love the Christians, and restored the churches…
[9] but that it was soon lulled; and then renewed by Vararanes: After his death Jezdegerdes again set about destroying the churches and vexing the Christians, and raged most atrociously against them: in which persecution there was slain also the holy Abda, bishop of the Huzites, because a presbyter of his clergy had procured the destruction of a house of Fire adjoining the church, hostile to the Christians. For this cause Jezdegerdes, stirred to anger, had raised that persecution, which he afterward removed at the intercession of Isaac the patrician of Armenia, who had induced the Armenians to obey him. So Amr, in whose account, however, Assemani shows many blunders, saying at pag. 373 that only one persecution under Isdegerdes is to be admitted, and believing that it was soon lulled, and finally judging that it befell about the end of Isdegerdes's reign, that is, about the year of Christ CDXIX. But in that way all the writers seem so far from being reconciled that rather they are all convicted of error. For if Isdegerdes's persecution was very brief, those erred who said that no persecution against the Christians was stirred up by him: and Theodoret too erred, and Theophanes, and others who wrote that a persecution was stirred up by him, since none of them makes it so brief. For which cause I should prefer to judge that the persecution was stirred up about the end of king Isdegerdes's reign, and was not interrupted, but continued by his descendants for thirty years. Certainly the shortness of the time in which Isdegerdes survived the persecution he had stirred up, and the fewness of the martyrs who suffered under him, may have brought it about that Socrates believed the persecution to have been begun only after his death, and thus, erring himself, led others also into error.
[10] Pagi will have the persecution begun by Isdegerdes in the year 414: Pagi, who fixes the beginning of the persecution to the year 414, seems to have had Theophanes before his eyes in one place only, and from the persecution prolonged to the fifth year, as Theophanes says, to have gathered the said epoch of the persecution: for although he alleges other writers also, these by no means favor such an opinion. Further, at the year 408 num. 5 he explains the foundation of his opinion in these words: In which matter it is confirmed by what Theophanes writes, namely that this persecution under Isdigerdes lasted five years, that is, from the year of Christ four hundred and fourteen, until his death, which befell in the year CDXX. But certainly here Pagi errs by one year: for from the year 414 to 420 six years are found. Besides, nowhere does Theophanes say that the persecution lasted five years while Isdegerdes was alive, which Pagi without fitting reason added to his words. The whole passage of Theophanes, because it at the same time records certain things about the Saint, I transfer hither: In this same year, he says at pag. 71, Isdegerdes king of the Persians, led on by the persuasion of Marutha bishop of Mesopotamia and of Abdas bishop of the royal city in Persia, inclined wholly toward piety: so much so that, having seen Marutha's wondrous works, he seemed on the point of receiving baptism: whence also he harassed the Magi, as seducers, with various punishments. But in the twentieth year he met his last day.
[11] following one passage of Theophanes, and that ill understood: but both from his Further, the cause of the persecution stirred up by him was given by Abdas, bishop of the royal city of Persia: who, moved indeed by divine zeal, but not using it according to the rule of reason, set fire to the temple of Fire. When this was known, the king ordered the churches erected throughout the whole region of Persia to be overthrown: and afflicted Abdas with various torments. The persecution being prolonged to the fifth year, many, nay innumerable Martyrs, were declared. For the magi pursued the hiding Christians through cities and villages after the manner of hunters: the Christians betrayed themselves to the consular men, lest even by silence they should seem to have denied Christ. And when at last they had been sought out for death in this fashion, very many were delivered to slaughter by the force of the torments: many also fled over to the Romans. Thus far Theophanes in that place, who at the last year but one of Isdegerdes again records this to our purpose: Further, Marutha bishop of Mesopotamia restored to health by prayers and fastings the son of Isdegerdes king of the Persians, who was vexed by a demon: from which Isdegerdes received very great confidence toward Christian affairs. Presently at the following year he subjoins: In this year, Isdegerdes having met his fate, his son Vararanes together with the kingdom entered upon a persecution of religion.
[12] Of the king's son freed from a demon Socrates also writes, and from Socrates's words it is shown, and attributes the deed at the same time to Abdas, book 7 chap. 8, where after recording Marutha's favor with Isdegerdes he continues thus: And it wanted but little that he himself should become a Christian, when Marutha, together with Abda (in the Greek Andla) bishop of Persia, had wrought another miracle also. For both drove out the demon by which the king's son was vexed, having first given themselves to fastings and prayers. But Isdigerdes indeed was overtaken by death before he was perfectly a Christian. And the kingdom came to his son Vararanes, in whose times the treaty between the Romans and the Persians was dissolved. From these I shall clearly show that Theophanes himself must be abandoned, if he cannot be explained otherwise than as Pagi expounded him. Abdas together with Marutha made the king inclined toward piety, on Theophanes's testimony, who designates the same Abdas of whom we are treating. Abdas again with Marutha freed the king's son from a demon — certainly no other Abdas than he who had already before, with Marutha, rendered the king kindly toward the Christians; and who is named by the one bishop of the royal city of Persia, by the other bishop of Persia. Further, that deliverance of the king's son is recorded by Theophanes at Isdegerdes's last year but one; but by Socrates it is so reported as clearly to hint that it was done not long before Isdegerdes's death. And so, since Abdas fell first in the persecution, and the same man lived and was in favor with Isdegerdes toward the end of his life, it is clear that the persecution was not begun save toward the end of Isdegerdes's life, namely in the year 419 or 420; and that this is the mind of Theophanes himself I shall presently show.
[13] But I first use another argument. Socrates, Theophanes, that the persecution was begun toward the end of Isdegerdes's life, Cyril in the Life of Euthymius, and others write that many fled from Persia to the provinces subject to the emperor Theodosius as soon as that Persian persecution arose. For this cause Vararanes demanded the fugitives back from Theodosius, and when he refused to give them up, war arose between the Persians and the Romans, as Socrates testifies book 7 chap. 18, and Theophanes at the first year of Vararanes pag. 73, where he has thus: He therefore (Vararanes) sent to Theodosius ambassadors who should seek back the fugitives from the kingdom. Theodosius emperor of the Romans refuses to give them up: from which, the treaty being dissolved, a great war was stirred up between them both. But it is not probable that the king of the Persians waited a whole five years, and only then demanded back the fugitives: and so neither is it probable that the persecution flourished for five years under Isdegerdes.
[14] Why then, someone will say, did Theophanes write of a persecution stirred up by Isdegerdes a whole decade before his death, [that is, about the year 419 or 420, and that it did not cease for thirty years, save perhaps for a short time.] and for what cause does he say it was prolonged to the fifth year, when Theodoret testifies that it lasted thirty years, unless he means that it was continued for five years under Isdegerdes? I answer that Theophanes spoke of that persecution and its cause out of order, where he had narrated Isdegerdes's benevolence, or his inclination toward piety, that the reader might perceive the reason of the king's change. But he writes that it was prolonged to the fifth year because he believed it was quieted in the fifth year, not under Isdegerdes, but in the fourth year of Vararanes, in which he writes that peace was made between Theodosius and Vararanes, and that the persecution was quieted. This peace Pagi binds to the year 422, nor yet does he admit that the persecution then wholly ceased, on account of the authority of Theodoret, who extends it to thirty years. I too should prefer to judge that the persecution was either not wholly removed, or only for a short time, so long as dissimulation was necessary to Vararanes that he might conclude peace with Theodosius. But whether the persecution was removed for a short time, or whether Theophanes erred in this, I judge that I have sufficiently shown that the five years of persecution asserted by him do not belong wholly to the reign of Isdegerdes, and therefore that, according to the mind of the ancients, the beginning of the persecution is to be laid down toward the end of Isdegerdes's reign, that is, about the year 419 or 420.
[15] St. Abdas was bishop of Susa: Of what city Abdas was bishop, the ancients do not clearly explain. Theophanes calls him bishop of the royal city of Persia: Amr in Assemani names him bishop of the Huzites. Assemani, already often praised, who also saw his Acts, not rarely calls him bishop of Susa, as does Pagi too. Michel le Quien in the Oriens Christianus tom. 2 col. [ ], among the bishops of Susa, wove a eulogy of Abdas which is not free of all error: for the Saint is there said to be called Andas in the Roman Martyrology at the XVI of May; but it is not Andas that is written there, but Audas, and he is announced with such Companions that he must be reckoned another, who suffered under Sapor, or rather confounded with him. The same author asserts that he is called Ablaatus by Socrates; but Socrates calls him Anldas, and Epiphanius Scholasticus names him Ablaatus, as Valois testifies in the annotations on Socrates pag. 84. But of Abdas's episcopal city the praised le Quien reasons thus: Sus, Susa, a city of Chuzistan, or, as it is read in the Nubian, of Churestan, … is an ancient city, that very Susan or Susa which was the royal seat of Ahasuerus the supreme ruler of the Medes and Persians, … and of others thereafter down to Artaxerxes Longimanus: which Daniel places in the region of Elam, or Elamitis, on the river Ulai or Eulæus. It was therefore different from Persepolis, which stood on the river Araxes. Further, Sus must be reckoned other than Ahwaz, and both, on the testimony of the Nubian geographer, are separated by an interval of three days' journey.
[16] [Acts written of old still survive in the East: a eulogy to be given from Theodoret.] That the Acts of St. Abdas, as also of the other martyrs of that time, were composed by Marutha bishop of Tagrit, with whom he advanced the faith in Persia, Assemani testifies in tom. 1 of the Oriental Library, where at pag. 181 he has thus of them, as seen by himself: Certainly I saw the Acts of Abdas the bishop, on whose account the Isdegerdian persecution was stirred up, in the Syrian monastery of Scete, when I was surveying the Nitrian desert. And they stood in a most excellent Syriac codex, which comprised sixty Passions of martyrs, partly Eastern, partly Western. But since these Acts cannot easily be obtained, we shall give a eulogy from Theodoret, who briefly related the persecution while it was not yet quieted, book 5 chap. 39, omitting only what he relates of St. Benjamin the deacon and of St. Hormisdas the martyr, because the former were given at the XXXI of March, the latter at the VIII of August, on which day he was inserted in the Roman Martyrology as having suffered under Sapor. This error about Hormisdas as having suffered under Sapor passed into our Work also, and therefore
I wish it here the more corrected. Yet I would not believe that Hormisdas suffered under Isdegerdes I, but rather that what Theodoret relates of him befell under Vararanes. The same seems to be said of what is narrated of Suenes and of St. Benjamin.
ACTS
by Theodoret
From his Ecclesiastical History book 5 chap. 39.
Abdas, bishop and martyr, in Persia (S.)
Others in Persia
[On what occasion the persecution among the Persians was stirred up, and Abdas crowned with martyrdom:] At the same time Isdigerdes king of the Persians made war upon the Churches of his nation, taking occasion from this. There was a certain bishop named Abda, adorned with many kinds of virtue. He, impelled by an immoderate zeal, destroyed a pyreum a. So the Persians call the temples consecrated to fire: for they judge fire to be a god. The king, informed of this by the magi, summoned Abda to him. And at first indeed he mildly rebuked that deed, and ordered him to rebuild the pyreum. But when Abda contradicted him and denied that he would do it, the king threatened that he would destroy all the churches. And he carried out his threats to their effect. For, having first ordered that divine Man to be put to death b, he commanded the churches to be levelled with the ground. But I confess that the pyreum was destroyed unseasonably by the bishop. For neither did the divine Apostle, when he had come to Athens and had seen the city given over to the worship of images, overthrow any altar of the gods whom they worshipped: but he refuted their error with words and demonstrated the truth. But that he by no means restored the overthrown shrine, and preferred to die rather than perform it, this indeed I admire and judge worthy of crowns. For to build a temple to fire I reckon to be no less than to adore it.
[2] Hence therefore the storm that arose stirred up the heaviest and fiercest waves against the nurslings of piety. the violence of this persecution, and the various kinds of punishments And when thirty years had already elapsed, it none the less continued, stirred up by the magi as by certain winds and whirlwinds. Now the Persians are wont to call magi those who attribute divinity to the elements. Their fables we have set forth in another Work, in which we brought a solution to each of their questions. Moreover Gororanes c, the son of Isdigerdes, after his father's death took up, together with his kingdom, war also against piety, as though handed on by hereditary right; and he himself, dying, delivered both joined together to his son d. But the various sorts of punishments and the torments devised by them, with which they might torture pious men, it is not easy to set forth. For of some they flayed the hands, of others the backs. Of some they stripped the heads of skin, beginning from the forehead as far as the beard. Some they covered with reeds split down the middle, applying the very cut edges to their bodies, and then, when they had bound them with the strongest bonds from head to foot, they drew out the several reeds by force, so that, the neighboring skin being drawn away with them, they might bring the bitterest pain.
[3] are set forth. Besides, digging pits and carefully plastering them, they filled them with troops of great mice, and offered the Athletes of piety to them as food, binding their hands and feet, that they might not be able to drive the beasts from them. And so the mice, hunger urging them, fed by little and little on the flesh of the Saints, inflicting on them a long and bitter torment. Besides, they devised other far heavier punishments, having as their teacher the enemy of the human race and the foe of truth. Nor yet could they break the fortitude of the Athletes. For they ran up of their own accord, desiring to meet the death by which immortal life is prepared. Further, I shall commemorate two or three in this place, that from them the constancy also of the rest may be perceived e. Besides, he asked Suenes f, the master of a thousand slaves, who contradicted him and was unwilling to deny his Creator, which of his slaves was the most worthless. And when he had set this man over the whole household, he ordered the Master himself also to serve him. He also joined to the same slave in the right of matrimony the Mistress, who had been the wife of the Master, hoping that by this deed he would cast down the Defender of truth from his resolve. But he was cheated of his hope: for that man had built his house upon a rock.