Manuel, Sabel and Ismael

Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael were brothers, put to death for Christ on 17 June 362. They are commemorated in the Orthodox Church on 17 June by the old calendar.

According to their life, Manuel, Sabel and Ismael were full brothers and came from the family of a noble pagan Persian. Their mother was a Christian and raised her sons in her faith; they were baptized by the presbyter Evnoikos. In manhood they were enrolled in the army of the king of Gerena, Adamundar (the Serbian source writes Alamundar and says that they were high officials of the king of the Persians). The brothers were sent to the emperor Julian for peace negotiations about frontier matters. They were received with honour, but during a pagan festival at Chalcedon they refused to take part, which aroused Julian's anger; they said that they had come as envoys of the Persian king to establish peace between the two empires, that they were Christians and considered it unworthy to bow to dead idols and offer them sacrifices. After the brothers refused to renounce the Christian faith, they were subjected to tortures: first they were stripped and, laid on the ground, beaten without mercy with harsh straps on the back and belly; then they were hung in a place of torment, their hands and feet nailed high to a tree, and scraped over the whole body with iron teeth. After the tortures Manuel, Sabel and Ismael were beheaded. According to the Serbian source, the Persian king Alamundar therefore attacked the army of Julian the Apostate and defeated it fiercely.

The veneration of the martyr brothers began soon after their death. After 30 years the emperor Theodosius the Great moved their relics to Constantinople and built a church there in their name. Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople, while still a simple monk, wrote a canon for the martyrs. According to the Hermeneia of Dionysius of Fourna (1730 to 1733), the brothers are to be depicted thus: Saint Manuel with a black beard, Sabel and Ismael with beards barely showing. The icon painter V. D. Fartusov writes in his work on the iconography of the martyrs: Holy Martyr Manuel, middle-⁠aged with a round beard; Sabel, younger, with a small beard; Ismael, with a beard just coming; all three in the dress of Persian soldiers, without armour.