HE succeeded his brother St. Sadoth in the metropolitical see of
Seleucia and Ctesiphon, in 342, which he held six years. Being accused
as an enemy to the Persian religion, and as one who spoke against the
Persian divinities, _Fire_ and _Water_, he was apprehended, with sixteen
of his clergy, by the orders of king Sapor II. The king seeing his
threats lost upon him, confined him almost a year in a loathsome
dungeon, in which he was often tormented by the Magians with scourges,
clubs, and tortures, besides the continual annoyance of stench, filth,
hunger, and thirst. After eleven months the prisoners were again brought
before the king. Their bodies were disfigured by their torments, and
their faces discolored by a blackish hue which they had contracted.
Sapor held out to the bishop a golden cup as a present, in which were a
thousand sineas of gold, a coin still in use among the Persians. Besides
this he promised him a government, and other great offices, if he would
suffer himself to be initiated in the rites of the sun. The saint
replied that he could not answer the reproaches of Christ at the last
day, if he should prefer gold, or a whole empire, to his holy law; and
that he was ready to die. He received his crown by the sword, with his
companions, on the 14th of January, in the year 346, and of the reign of
king Sapor II. the thirty-seventh, at Ledan, in the province of the
Huzites. St. Maruthas, the author of his acts, adds, that Sapor,
resolving to extinguish utterly the Christian name in his empire,
published a new terrible edict, whereby he commanded every one to be
tortured and put to death who should refuse to adore the sun, to worship
fire and water, and to feed on the blood of living creatures.[1] The see
of Seleucia remained vacant twenty years, and innumerable martyrs
watered all the provinces of Persia with their blood. St. Maruthas was
not able to recover their names, but has left us a copious panegyric on
then heroic deeds, accompanied with the warmest sentiments of devotion,
and desires to be speedily united with them in glory. See Acta Mart.
Orient. per Steph. Assemani, t. 1, p. 3.
Footnotes:
1. The Christians observed for several ages, especially in the East,
the apostolic temporary precept of abstaining from blood. Acts, xv.
20. See Nat. Alexander Hist. Saec. 1, dissert 9.
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