The Martyrdom of the Holy Abramios (c. 343)

Feast Day: February 4

Introduction

St. Abramios was a bishop in the Sasanian (or Sassanid) Empire; his see was the town of Erbil, Iraq (spelled Arbēl in Greek). He was martyred under King Shapur II, who reigned his entire life, from 309 to 379. The text below is from the Greek version of the Acts of the martyrs during this king's reign, originally in Syriac.

From the Acts of the Persian Martyrs under Shapur II

1. In the fifth year of the persecution against us, the most holy bishop Abramios of the city of Arbēl was seized by the command of the archmage Aderphora, of the homeland of Iab. That archmage, forcing him, the holy Abramios, to venerate the sun, and he not wanting to do this, all his body was destroyed by fearful tortures, with him, the holy one, crying out in those unendurable sufferings and saying that, “A Christian am I, and one God, the true One, I venerate, and Him alone I worship, and in His holy and true faith I will persevere until death; and do not force me to venerate creatures and handiworks."
2. And he, the holy one, crying out these things in the tortures, the impious one said to him, “Do the will of the king, and live.” But the martyr of Christ Abramios, answering, said to him, “And you and your wretched prince I set at naught, and your king, and he, being a transgressor, I despise, and I mock his gods. But as much as the king wished,by his bragging,to trample underfoot our humility and to defeat our truth by his impiety, behold! many more will see our humble figure and magnify God abundantly for the things deeds done to us, and but he will be humbled and despised by his deeds; and our fulfilled truth will be glorified, but the mocked one will be dishonored; and each day we will trample him under our feet.” And the tyrant, hearing the insolences [toward] the king, the ones spoken by the holy one, commanded him to be immediately beheaded; and forthwith the blessed Abramios was taken up into an unwalled village named Thelam. And [he] was ended in the month of February, on the fifth, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom [be] the glory and the power now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: Les Versions Grecques des Actes des Martyrs Persans Sous Sapor II, ed. Hippolyte Delehaye, in Patrologia Orientalis, ed. R. Griffin and F. Nau, Tomus Secundus (Paris: Libraire de Paris, 1907), 450-451.

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