Nerangios of Mesukevi

Holy Martyr Nerangios of Mesukevi, a Georgian, is counted among the seventeen Georgian martyrs led by Saint Sukhi (Sukhius), who suffered at Mount Sukaketi. Sukhius and his companions were great dignitaries at the court of the Albanian (Agvan) ruler; accompanying his daughter Satenik, wife of the Armenian king Artaxias, they came to Artashat, where the Greek Christian Chrysos preached, ordained priest by the Holy Apostle Thaddeus. The dignitaries believed in the Saviour, followed Chrysos to Mesopotamia, and at the Baptism in the waters of the Euphrates were found worthy to see the Lord of glory. The priest Chrysos gave them new names: to the eldest, Sukhius (in place of Bagadras), and to his companions Andrew, Anastasius, Talale, Theodoret, Ivkhirion, Jordan, Condratus, Lucian, Mimnenos, Nerangios, Polyeuctus, Jacob, Phocas, Domentian, Victor and Zosimas.

After the martyr's end of Chrysos, Sukhius became the spiritual guide of the brethren, and they moved to Mount Sukaketi, where they led a severe life, with food of mountain plants and spring water. The ruler of Albania, Datianos, sent his man Barnapas with soldiers to turn them back to the court and the former faith, but they rejected all persuasion. Then Sukhius and his companions were pinned to the ground in the form of a cross and burned, singing the twenty-⁠first psalm; their bodies were hacked in pieces and scattered over the mountain, whence the name of Mesukevi (more correctly, Sukaketi). This took place in the year 123 (by other data in 130, or in 100). Their remains lay unburied and incorrupt until the fourth century, when Christians buried them, and Saint Gregory the Illuminator built on that place a church and a monastery. Nerangios is commemorated on 28 April, in the new style, and on 22 November, a movable day, with the Synaxis of the Alan saints.