Abibas of Persia

Holy Martyr Abibas of Persia was one of those imprisoned in the city of Varavokh, in the time of King Shapur, a harsh persecutor of Christians, and is remembered in the company of the martyrs Jonas, Barachisius and the others. His name is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church. They are commemorated on 10 April.

The brothers Jonas and Barachisius were Christians and lived in a village in Persia. Learning that Christians were being tormented in Varavokh, they went there and found in prison the martyrs Zanithas, Lazarus, Maruthas, Narses, Elias, Marinus, Abibas, Sivethinus and Sabbas, and urged them to hold the Christian faith to the end. The brothers were seized and taken to the judgment of the Persian princes Masdraf, Sirof and Marmisius, who tried to force them to bow to the sun, fire and water. The martyrs confessed firmly their faith in Christ and refused, and for this they were subjected to cruel torments.

Jonas suffered first. They tied him to a tree and beat him for a long time, then dragged him over the ice of a frozen lake, cut off his fingers and toes and his tongue, flayed the skin of his head, and in the end sawed him in two and threw his body into a ditch. Barachisius they put in fetters heated red-⁠hot, poured molten tin into his nose, ears and mouth, and tore him bound to a turning wheel. The saint gave up his spirit to God after boiling pitch was poured into his mouth. The bodies of the martyrs Jonas and Barachisius and of the others were buried by a pious Christian named Abdisot.