Elias of Persia

Holy Martyr Elias of Persia is named in the Synaxarion among the martyrs imprisoned at Baravokh in Persia, in the time of King Shapur (310 to 331), a fierce persecutor of Christians. The Azbyka page says of him only that he was in prison with the other martyrs and adds nothing particular.

Two Christian brothers, Jonah and Barachisius, lived in the village of Yasy in Persia. Hearing that Christians were being tortured in the city of Baravokh, they went there and found in prison the martyrs Zanithas, Lazarus, Maruthas, Narses, Elias, Marinus, Abibus, Sivethinus and Sabbas. They urged them to hold fast to the Christian faith to the end. The two brothers were seized and brought to trial before the Persian princes Masdrafus, Syrus and Marmisius, who tried to force them to worship the sun, fire and water. The martyrs confessed their faith in Christ and refused, and so they were put to the cruellest tortures.

Saint Jonah suffered first: he was tied to a tree and beaten for a long time, dragged over the ice of a frozen lake, his fingers and toes were cut off, his tongue was cut out, the skin of his head was stripped, and then he was sawn in two and his body thrown into a ditch. Saint Barachisius had red-⁠hot shackles put on his hands, molten tin poured into his nose, ears and mouth, and was tormented bound to a turning wheel. The saint gave up his soul to God after boiling pitch was poured into his mouth. The bodies of Jonah, Barachisius and the other martyrs were buried by a pious Christian named Abdisot.

A note on the page says that Elias is not mentioned in the present calendar of the Russian Church. The martyrs are commemorated on 10 April, in the new style.