The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ishmael.
Manuel, Sabel and Ishmael were brothers
born in Persia of a pagan father and a Christian mother. They were
educated in the spirit of Christianity and were baptized. As
Christians they were high-ranking officials at the court of King
Alamundar. They were sent to Emperor Julian the Apostate to conduct
negotiations and to confirm peace between the Persian and
Graeco-Roman empires. The apostate emperor arranged some sort of
blasphemous celebration in honor of the idols in Chalcedon. At this
celebration, the emperor, with his noblemen, offered sacrifices to
the idols. The Persian emissaries absented themselves from this
celebration. The emperor summoned them and ordered that they also
take part in the celebration and to offer sacrifices to the gods.
They declared that they were foreign citizens and that they came as
emissaries of the Persian king for the sake of establishing peace
between the two empires and not for anything else; that they are
Christians and that they consider it unworthy to worship dead idols
and to offer them sacrifices. The emperor became enraged and cast
them into prison. The next day, he brought them out and again began
to dispute with them about faith, but the holy brothers were adamant
and unwavering. They were then bound naked to trees, beaten and
scraped with an iron brush. During the entire time of torturing they
prayed to God with thanksgiving for their tortures: "O sweet
Jesus these torments are sweet for the sake of Your love!" An
angel of God appeared to them, comforted them and removed every pain
from them. Contrary to all international relations, the wicked
Emperor Julian finally pronounced judgment that the three brothers be
beheaded. When they were beheaded, there was a great earthquake; the
earth split and received the bodies of the holy martyrs so that the
pagans could not burn their bodies as ordered by the emperor. After
that the earth gave up the bodies of these martyrs so that Christians
could find them and honorably bury them. Many miracles occurred over
their relics which, when many pagans saw, they converted to the
Christian Faith. When the Persian king, upon hearing how Julian
inhumanely gave his emissaries over to death, he prepared an army
against him. Convinced of victory, Julian set out against the Persian
Empire but he was overwhelmingly defeated and perished in shame to
the joy and ridicule of the entire world.Our Venerable Father Hypatius, Hegumen of the Rufenianos Monastery
(446)
No comments:
Post a Comment