Andrew of Mesukevi

Holy Martyr Andrew of Mesukevi, a Georgian, was one of the seventeen nobles who, converted to Christ in Armenia, withdrew to a strict ascetic life on Mount Sukaketi and died as martyrs by burning, in the year 123 according to some sources. The first among them was Sukhius. They are commemorated on 28 April and on 22 November, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Alania.

The nobles were officials at the court of the ruler of Caucasian Albania and, accompanying his daughter, the wife of the Armenian king Artaxias, came to Artashat. There they heard the preaching of the Christian Chrysos, enlightened by the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, and believed. They followed him to Mesopotamia, where they were baptised in the Euphrates by the priest Chrysos, who gave them new names; he received the name Andrew. After Chrysos's death they withdrew to Mount Sukaketi, where they lived on mountain plants and spring water. The ruler Datianos sent Barnabas to them with soldiers to bring them back to court and to paganism, but they refused. Then they were nailed to the ground in the form of a cross and burned, singing Psalm 21; their bodies were hacked and scattered over the mountain, which is why they are called the martyrs of Mesukevi. Their relics remained incorrupt until the fourth century, when local Christians buried them, and Saint Gregory the Illuminator raised a church and a monastery there.