Savel the Persian

Holy Martyr Savel the Persian was one of three brothers, Manuel, Savel and Ishmael, of noble Persian family, put to death in the year 362 by the emperor Julian the Apostate. They are also called of Chalcedon, after the place where their relics are honoured.

Their father was a pagan, while their mother, a Christian, had baptized them and raised them in the faith of Christ. Grown to manhood, the brothers entered the army. As envoys of the Persian king Alamundar, they were sent to conclude peace with the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian received them with honour, but when the brothers refused to take part in a pagan sacrifice, he, angry, broke the law and shut them in prison as evildoers. At the interrogation he told them that if they despised the gods he honoured, there could be neither understanding nor peace between the countries; the brothers answered that they had been sent by their king on a state mission, not to dispute about gods. The emperor, seeing the firmness of their faith, ordered them tormented: they were hung, their hands and feet nailed to a tree, nails driven into their heads and sharp pins under their nails. In the torments the holy soldiers, as if feeling no pain, glorified God and prayed. At last their heads were cut off with swords. Julian ordered their bodies burned, but suddenly an earthquake came, the earth opened and received into its bosom the bodies of the holy martyrs. After two days, at the fervent prayer of the Christians, the earth gave back the bodies of the brothers, from which a sweet fragrance came. Many pagans, witnesses of the wonder, believed in Christ and were baptized, and the Christians buried with honour the relics of the brothers Manuel, Savel and Ishmael. From that time their relics were glorified by miracles.

Learning of the murder of the envoys and that Julian was advancing with great armies against him, King Alamundar gathered his army and stood on the border of his country. In a great battle the Persians defeated the Greeks, and Julian the Apostate was killed by the Holy Great Martyr Mercurius. After thirty years the pious emperor Theodosius the Great (†395) built in Constantinople a church in honour of the holy martyrs, and St Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, while still a hieromonk, wrote a canon in memory and praise of the holy brothers.

St Savel is commemorated on 30 June, in the new style.