Joseph of Persia

Holy Hieromartyr Joseph of Persia was a priest in Persia and received a martyr's death together with Bishop Acepsimas and the deacon Aithalas. The Church commemorates them on 16 November (new style).

Acepsimas was bishop of the Christian church in the Persian city of Naesson. His flock loved him fervently for his ascetic life and his tireless pastoral labours. King Shapur ordered that the Christian clergy be sought out and put to death, and the bishop, then an eighty-⁠year-⁠old man, was also seized. They brought him to the city of Arbela, to be judged by Ardakh, priest of the sun god. The old man refused to offer sacrifice to the Persian gods, and for this he was cruelly beaten and shut up in prison.

The next day, after terrible torments, the seventy-⁠year-⁠old priest Joseph and the deacon Aithalas were thrown into the same prison. For three years the saints were held in chains, tormented by hunger and thirst. King Shapur came to the temple of the fire god, which stood not far from Arbela, and wished to see the three martyrs. Wasted and covered with festering sores, they stood before the king and, at his demands, again firmly refused to worship the pagan gods, confessing their faith in Christ.

The bishop was beheaded, and the priest and the deacon were taken into the city and stoned. The killing of the priest Joseph lasted several hours. A guard was set near the place of execution so that Christians could not take the martyr's body. On the fourth night a violent storm swept over the city, lightning killed the guards, the wind scattered the stones, and the body of Saint Joseph vanished. The deacon Aithalas was led to the village of Patrias and stoned there. Christians buried his body in secret, and a tree grew on the saint's grave whose fruit brought healing. According to the source, Aithalas suffered by order of Shapur II, for confessing the name of Christ, in the year 380.