Acepsimas

Holy Hieromartyr Acepsimas was bishop of Hnaita, residing at Paka in western Persia, and died a martyr under Shapur II, in the year 376.

He was arrested with the priest Joseph of Bet-⁠Katoba, aged seventy, and the deacon Aitillaha of Bet-⁠Nuhadra, aged sixty-⁠six, because they refused to worship according to the Zoroastrian faith. Acepsimas was taken in chains to Arbela (today Erbil) before the governor. The governor marvelled at how he could deny the divinity of the sun, which all the East adored. The martyr answered that he marvelled how men could prefer a creature to the Creator. By the governor's order he was laid on the ground with his feet bound and beaten without mercy, until his whole body was covered in blood, and then thrown into prison. He endured three years of imprisonment, then was racked and whipped to death on 10 October 376. Joseph was taken to Hdajab, tortured, and stoned to death by apostate Christians at Tabaha, on the Friday after Pentecost, in 377. Aithalla was stoned to death at Destegerd on 3 November 377.

They are saints of the undivided Church, commemorated in the Syriac tradition.