Abenner of India

Holy Venerable Abenner of India was, according to tradition, a king in India, a land that had received the Christian faith through the preaching of the Holy Apostle Thomas. He was an idol worshipper and a fierce persecutor of Christians, but came to be baptised through the example and labour of his son, Saint Ioasaph. He is commemorated on 2 December.

Prince Ioasaph

For a long time the king had no children. At last a son was born to him, named Ioasaph. At his birth the wise astrologer of the court foretold that the prince would accept the Christian faith that his father persecuted. The king, wishing to prevent the prediction from coming true, ordered a separate palace built for his son and arranged that the prince should hear not a single word about Christ and His teaching. Reaching the age of youth, the prince asked his father's leave to go out beyond the palace and then saw that there are sufferings, illnesses, old age and death. This led him to thoughts on the vanity of life, and he remained in heavy reflection.

At that time the wise hermit Venerable Barlaam was struggling in a distant desert. By a divine revelation he learned of the young man tormented in his search for truth. Coming out of the desert, Barlaam set out for India in the guise of a merchant, reached the city where the prince's palace stood, and said that he was bringing a precious stone that cured illnesses. Brought to Prince Ioasaph, Barlaam set before him the Christian teaching in parables, and then from the Holy Gospel and the words of the Holy Apostles. From Barlaam's teachings the young man understood that the precious stone is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, believed in Him and wished to receive Holy Baptism. After baptising him, Barlaam commanded him to fast and pray and returned to the desert.

The king's resistance

The king, learning that his son had become a Christian, fell into anger and grief. On the advice of an official, he arranged a debate on faith between Christians and pagans, to which the sorcerer Nahor came in the guise of Barlaam. Nahor was to admit defeat in the debate and so turn the prince away from Christianity. Through a vision in a dream, Ioasaph learned of the deceit and threatened Nahor with a cruel death if he were defeated. Frightened, Nahor not only defeated the pagans but himself believed in Christ, repented, was baptised and withdrew into the desert. The king tried in other ways to turn his son from Christianity, but the prince overcame all the temptations. Then, on the advice of his officials, Abenner gave his son half of the kingdom. Ioasaph, having become king, restored Christianity in his land, rebuilt churches, and in the end brought his father, King Abenner, to Christianity. Soon after his baptism King Abenner departed to the Lord.

In the desert

Saint Ioasaph left the kingdom and set out for the desert to seek his teacher, the elder Barlaam. For two years he wandered in the desert, enduring hardship and temptations, until he found the cave of Venerable Barlaam, who struggled in silence. The old man and the young man began to labour together. When the time of Barlaam's death drew near, he served the Liturgy, communed of the Holy Mysteries and communed Ioasaph, and then departed to the Lord, having spent seventy years in the desert of the hundred he lived. After burying the elder, Ioasaph remained in the same cave, continuing the hermit's labour. He spent thirty-⁠five years in the desert and departed to the Lord at the age of sixty. Ioasaph's successor on the throne, Barachias, at the urging of a hermit, found in the cave the incorrupt and fragrant relics of the two ascetics, carried them to his own land and buried them in the church built by the venerable prince Ioasaph.