Barsimaeus

Holy Confessor Barsimaeus was bishop of Edessa and reposed in peace in the year 114. He is commemorated on 29 January (new style).

He taught and baptized Saint Sharbel and his sister Saint Bebaia (commemorated on the same day), and for this he was denounced to the governor Lysias. Before him he boldly confessed faith in Christ, and the governor ordered the soldiers to beat him without mercy and cast him into prison. A little later, when the persecution paused for a time, he was released and returned to the Church, glorifying the name of God. He then lived pleasing to God until the end of his life.

A verse of the synaxarion says that Barsimaeus gave the heavy flesh to the earth and joined those who bore the burden of the day. The Greek calendar sometimes lists him among the martyrs, but he suffered beatings and prison, not death, and so we call him a confessor.