Isaac and Joseph of Georgia

The Holy New Martyrs Isaac and Joseph of Georgia were two brothers born into a Muslim family and raised in secret in the Christian faith by their Georgian mother, and they died as martyrs in Byzantine Armenia at the beginning of the ninth century.

The brothers were so firm in the faith that they travelled to Byzantium to ask the emperor Nikephoros I (802-811) for permission to settle in his capital. The pious emperor received them kindly. They were already known and respected among the nobility of Theodosiopolis (Karnu). Learning of their intention, the emir of Theodosiopolis demanded to know the reason for their journey to Constantinople, and the brothers answered openly that it was the Christian faith. The emir was angry but did not want to kill them, since the people of the city held them in high regard, and he resolved to turn them from Christianity. Their elderly father pleaded tearfully with them to deny Christ, while the emir promised every honour for betraying Him and suffering and death for refusing.

The saints answered with words of Scripture: flesh is like grass and all earthly glory like the flower of the grass, and neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Their boldness enraged the emir, and he ordered them put to death. Before giving up their souls they knelt to the ground and prayed that the Lord would receive them as a holy sacrifice and number them among His martyrs.

The executioners cut off their heads, but their bodies remained untouched. That night the holy remains shone with a radiant light. This miracle frightened the persecutors, who ordered the local Christians to bury them. The bishop and clergy laid them in the earth with great reverence, and a church was later built over the place where they rest.

They are commemorated on 16 September.