Ananias

Holy Martyr Ananias, the youth of Babylon, is one of the three youths cast into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. He is commemorated on 30 December. His commemoration is closely tied to that of Holy Prophet Daniel and his two companions, Azarias and Misael.

Six hundred years before Christ, Jerusalem was conquered by the king of Babylon, the temple built by Solomon was destroyed and a multitude of Israelites were carried off into captivity. Among the captives were the noble youths Daniel, Ananias, Azarias and Misael. Nebuchadnezzar ordered them taught the wisdom of the Chaldeans and raised in luxury at his court. But they, keeping the commandments of their faith, refused the delicacies, kept a strict way of life and ate only vegetables and water. The Lord gave them wisdom, and to Daniel the gift of foresight and the interpretation of dreams. Holy Prophet Daniel, keeping the faith in the one God sacredly and hoping in His almighty help, surpassed in wisdom all the astrologers and sorcerers of the Chaldeans and was brought near to King Nebuchadnezzar. One day the king had a strange dream that shook him, but on waking he forgot it. The wise men of Babylon could not tell what the king had dreamed. Then Daniel glorified before all the power of the true God, who revealed to him not only the dream but its prophetic meaning. After that Daniel was raised by the king to be chief of Babylon.

Soon the king ordered an image of himself to be set up, a huge statue to which divine honours were to be given. For refusing, the three youths, Ananias, Azarias and Misael, were cast into the burning furnace. The flame rose above the furnace forty-⁠nine cubits and burned the Chaldeans standing around, while the holy youths walked in the midst of the flames, lifting prayer to the Lord and praising Him (Daniel 3:26 to 90). The angel of the Lord, appearing, cooled the flame, and the youths remained unharmed. The king, seeing it, ordered them to come out and turned to the true God. In the time of King Belshazzar, Daniel interpreted the mysterious writing ("Mene, Tekel, Peres") that appeared on the palace wall during a feast, foretelling the fall of the kingdom of Babylon. Under the Persian king Darius, Daniel, through the slanders of his enemies, was thrown into the pit of hungry lions, but the lions did not touch him, and King Darius rejoiced and ordered that in all his kingdom the God of Daniel be worshipped, "for He is the living and everlasting God, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed, and His dominion has no end".

Holy Prophet Daniel grieved deeply for his people, who bore the just punishment for their many sins. To him, who by righteous life and prayer redeemed the iniquities of his people, the fate of Israel and the fate of the world were revealed. In interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream he announced the succession of kingdoms and the greatness of the last Kingdom, that of our Lord Jesus Christ (Daniel 2:44). The vision of the seventy weeks told the world the signs of the First and Second Comings of the Lord. Daniel interceded for his people before King Cyrus, the successor of Darius, who valued him highly and gave the captives freedom. Daniel himself and his friends Ananias, Azarias and Misael lived to deep old age and died in captivity. But according to the testimony of Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Saints Ananias, Azarias and Misael were beheaded by order of the Persian king Cambyses.