Barbashmin

Barbashmin was bishop of Seleucia-⁠Ctesiphon, primate of the Church of the East, and a martyr in the persecution of the Persian king Shapur II. He succeeded Shahdost in the see in 343 and was put to death three years later, in 346. His name, the sources say, means "the man with four names".

He was a native of Beth Garmai and a nephew, through his sister, of Saint Shemon bar Sabbae. According to the later historians of the Church of the East, he was consecrated in secret in the house of a believer because of the persecution, and in turn secretly consecrated bishops for various districts. The chronicler Bar Hebraeus says that he urged clerics, monks and bishops to put on secular clothing to escape the pursuers.

After seven years of hidden ministry the king learned of him and arrested him with priests and believers. According to the historian Mari, they were held in chains for eleven months, short of food and water, and the king offered him a governorship and riches if he would become a magus. The bishop laughed and answered that the more Christians were killed, the more their number would grow. He was put to death on the same spot where Shemon bar Sabbae had been killed, together with thirty-⁠three others; according to Bar Hebraeus there were sixteen companions, killed at Karka de Ledan in Beth Huzaye on 9 November. The bishop of Ahwaz buried them near Gundeshapur.

After the death of Barbashmin the Church of Persia remained without a primate for many years. He is counted a saint by the Church of the East, which keeps his feast on 14 January.