Heliodorus of Bet Zabdai

Saint Heliodorus was bishop of the city of Bet Zabdai in Mesopotamia and died in the year 344, as a result of the persecution of Christians led by the Persian king Shapur II. He is reckoned a hieromartyr, and the Church commemorates him on 20 August, together with his successor Dausa.

Around 337 Shapur II invaded Roman Mesopotamia, beginning a long war. Under his reign Christians were persecuted, in reaction to the encouragement that Constantine the Great had given to Christianity. Shapur besieged and captured Bet Zabdai, and Heliodorus was taken to Persia as a prisoner of war. The prisoners were set on a long march toward Bet Huzaye.

The Serbian synaxarion adds that Heliodorus and Dausa fearlessly rebuked the impiety of the Persians, who were tearing down Christian churches, destroying holy icons and burning the relics of saints, and declared that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the one true faith. For this the king ordered them arrested and taken to Persia.

On the way Heliodorus fell ill and named the priest Dausa as his successor. He died of ill treatment and exhaustion at Daskarata on the Great Zab, in 344. Dausa was beheaded at Masabadan in Media, with two hundred and seventy-⁠five companions, after they refused to worship the sun, the pagan deity of the Persians.

The sources do not agree in every point: one calls Dausa a priest, another a bishop in Mesopotamia, and one wrongly says that Shapur attacked Greece. Their commemoration is on 20 August.