Память святых мучеников Авды и Вениамина

The holy martyr Avda lived during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Younger 2300 and was a bishop in Persia. He destroyed the church of fire worshipers 2301 and for this he was captured and brought to the king 2302. The king at first meekly ordered him to restore the destroyed church, but when he replied that he could not do this, he sent soldiers to destroy all Christian churches. After this, the persecutors began to persecute Christians and, regardless of age, began to put them to death in various ways. The first of them, after various torments, was beheaded with a sword by the holy martyr Avda, and thirty days after this the other holy martyrs were executed, and among them the holy deacon Benjamin 2303. His tormentors first stuck sharpened knitting needles under his fingernails and toenails and then impaled him, from which he surrendered his spirit into the hands of the Lord 2304. Theodosius II the Younger reigned over the eastern half of the Roman Empire from 408 to 450. The Persians revered Mithra, or the sun, as their supreme god. They also worshiped fire and built churches for their deities, in which they worshiped fire and the sun. The king mentioned here was Izdegerd I, who reigned from 401 to 420. The persecution he began was especially strong under his successor Varanus V (420–438). According to the month of Basil, the holy martyr Benjamin died as a martyr not three months, but three years after Saint Avda. The holy martyr Abda died in 418 or 421, and Saint Benjamin three years later, therefore in 421 or 424, both in the city of Susa, the oldest Persian city, which was the capital of Susiana and the residence of first the Elamite and then the Persian kings. You might be interested in: