Abraham of Arbela

Saint Abraham of Arbela, also called Abramius, was bishop of the city of Arbela in Sassanid Persia and received the crown of martyrdom in the year 345, in the reign of King Shapur II. He is remembered on 4 February (in the Catholic Church, on 31 January).

Arbela lay in Mesopotamia, today Erbil, in northern Iraq. When Bishop John of Arbela was imprisoned, the local Christian community appointed Abraham as his deputy. A little later, after John's martyrdom, Abraham succeeded him as bishop, in 343, and remained in that office only one year.

The church historian Sozomen, in the second book of his Church History, describes the persecutions and torments in the Persian Empire under Shapur II the Great, saying that in this time the blood of an almost countless number of bishops, priests, deacons and nuns was crowned with martyrdom. Among the names he managed to preserve is that of Abramius, bishop of Arbela. He was tortured and then beheaded, in 345, because he confessed his faith and refused to worship the sun god at Telman. He is venerated by the Orthodox and the Catholic Church.