Isaac of Theodosiopolis

Holy Martyr Isaac of Theodosiopolis, also called of Erzurum, died a martyr's death in the year 808, together with his brother Joseph. The Church commemorates them on 29 September (new style).

The two brothers were born in Theodosiopolis, the city also called Karnu, today Erzurum. Their father was a prominent Muslim, and their mother a good and devout Christian who in secret raised them, and a third, older son whose name is not known, in the Christian faith. Grown to full manhood, the brothers wished to leave their Mohammedan father, so that they could freely confess their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They wrote to Emperor Nikephoros I (802-811), asking leave to move to Constantinople and to enter the service of the court. Having received a favourable answer from the Christian emperor, they began to prepare for the journey.

The eldest soon left for Constantinople, but Isaac and Joseph were stopped by order of the emir of Theodosiopolis. Asked why they wished to go, they said, to the amazement of all present, among them their father, that they were Christians from birth and were fleeing from the unbelievers in order to confess their faith in freedom. Neither entreaties nor threats moved them. The emir gathered the council of notables and fixed the penalty of death for them. At the place of condemnation, kneeling, Isaac and Joseph prayed to the Lord, after which the executioner cut off their heads.

That night an unusually bright pillar of light came down upon their unburied bodies and stood above them. Astonished by the sign, the Muslims asked the Christians of the city to bury the bodies of the martyrs. On the burial place a church was later built, dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity.