Siveif of Persia

Holy Martyr Siveif of Persia is named in the list of the Christians held in the prison at Baravokha in Persia in the time of King Sapor (310-331), and he was strengthened in the faith by the holy brothers Jonah and Barachisius.

Jonah and Barachisius were Christian brothers from the village of Yasa in Persia. Hearing that Christians were being tormented at Baravokha, they went there and found in the prison the martyrs Zanithas, Lazarus, Maruthas, Narses, Elias, Marinus, Abibus, Siveif and Sabbas, and urged them to hold the Christian faith firmly to the end. The brothers were seized and brought to trial before the Persian princes Masdraph, Siroph and Marmisius, who pressed them to worship the sun, fire and water. The holy martyrs confessed their faith in Christ and refused, and were subjected to dreadful tortures. Jonah suffered first, bound to a tree and beaten for a long time, then dragged over the ice of a frozen lake, with his fingers cut off, his tongue cut out and the skin of his head flayed, and at last sawn in two, his body thrown into a ditch. Barachisius had red-⁠hot shackles put on his hands, molten tin poured into his nose, ears and mouth, and was tormented bound to a turning wheel; he gave up his spirit to God after boiling pitch was poured into his mouth. Their bodies and those of the others were buried by a pious Christian, Abdisot.

Siveif is commemorated on 10 April, in the new style; he is not mentioned in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.