Страдание святого священномученика Симеона, епископа Персидского

When in Persia 2581 the number of Christians greatly increased and they had their own churches, bishops, priests and deacons, 2582 the pagan wise men, seeing this, became very furious and angry at the Christians. These Magi, descending from the ancient Magi, were the defenders and guardians of the wicked Persian false faith. Together with them, the Jews, the eternal enemies of Christianity, rebelled against Christians. Having conspired with the Magi, they taught the Persian king Sapor 2583 to initiate persecution against Christians 2584. And even before this, they slandered before him Saint Simeon, who was the bishop of the city of Seleucia-Ctesiphon 2585, saying that this Christian bishop was hostile to the Persian kingdom and was friends with the Greek king, to whom he allegedly informed about everything that was happening in Persia. Тогда царь Сапор прежде всего наложил на христиан большую и очень тяжелую подать и приказал строгим мужам наблюдать за уплатою подати. Потом он стал открыто умерщвлять священников и служителей Божиих, стал грабить церковные имущества и разорять самые церкви, срывая их до основания; епископа же Симеона, как мнимого врага Персидского царства и противника нечестивого суеверия персидского, он повелел схватить и привести к себе на суд. Согласно царскому распоряжению к царю был приведен святой Симеон с двумя священниками, Авделаем и Ананием. Епископ, взятый воинами и скованный железными узами, не только не устрашился гнева царя, но даже и не поклонился ему. Therefore, the king, very angry, asked the saint: “Why don’t you bow to me like you used to?” – Раньше меня не приводили к тебе так, как я приведен теперь, – и я преклонялся пред тобою, воздавая достойную честь твоему сану. Теперь же, когда я приведен, чтобы отречься от моего Бога и отступить от своей веры, мне не подобает кланяться тебе, врагу моего Бога. The king began to convince him to worship the sun 2586 and promised him many gifts and honors for this, threatening otherwise to completely destroy Christianity in his kingdom. When the king saw that the saint was courageous and was not inclining towards his wickedness either by kindness or by threats, he ordered him to be put in prison. While the saint was being led from the royal chambers to prison, he was seen by the eunuch 2587 Usfasan 2588, already advanced in years, who had raised King Sapor from the days of his childhood and enjoyed great honor from everyone, since he was the closest person to the king. This eunuch was then sitting near the royal chambers and, seeing that they were leading out Saint Simeon the Bishop, he immediately stood up from his place and bowed low to the bishop of God. But Saint Simeon turned his face away from him and loudly reproached him for his apostasy, for he was first a Christian, and then he bowed to the sun out of fear of the king. After this, Usfazan began to grieve greatly, began to cry and sob, took off his precious clothes, put on simple and coarse clothes and, sitting at the door of the royal palace, said to himself with tears: “Woe to me, the accursed! How will I appear before my God, Whom I have denied? Here is Simeon, and he turned his face away from me for my apostasy; How will my Creator look at me? Saying this, he sobbed inconsolably. Having learned about this, King Sapor immediately called him to himself and, seeing that he was crying, asked him: -What is the reason for your sadness? What sad thing happened to you in the royal palace? “No, nothing bad or sad happened to me in your palace, although I would like to endure all the misfortunes of the world, sorrow and misfortune, rather than the one thing for which I now lament in my heart and cry, namely, that I still live on earth: I am so old in years and I should have died long ago, and I still look at the sun, which I worship as a god.” It would be better if I died than to retreat from God, the Creator of all creation, by worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. But I did this not out of my sincere desire, but hypocritically, wanting to please you, and therefore I am worthy of the death penalty for two reasons: firstly, I renounced Christ my God, and secondly, I turned out to be unfaithful to you in my old age. But I swear by God, the Creator of heaven and earth, that I will never commit such a sin again. I will no longer anger my Lord and God Jesus Christ, the Immortal King, for the sake of a mortal king; I will no longer bow my knees before the sun, God’s creation, but I will worship the Creator Himself from this day to the end. After listening to Usfazan, King Sapor was very surprised at such an unexpected change in him and began to be even more angry at the Christians, thinking that they had seduced Usfazan by some kind of magic. Feeling sorry for the elder, he began to ask him, as a father, so that he would not bring such humiliation to their gods, dishonor to himself and the royal house of sorrow, and admonished him to this end, either with caresses or threats. But Usfazan answered the king: “I’ve had enough of the recklessness that I committed earlier; Now I will not do this, I will not honor creation instead of the Creator. After long and varied admonitions, the king, seeing that Usfazan was adamant, condemned him to be beheaded with a sword. Led to the death penalty, blessed Usfasan called to him one of his faithful friends, a eunuch and royal cubicular 2589, and asked him to go to the king and convey to him his last words. He said this: “King,” says Usfazan, “remember my service, remember how from the days of my youth I served first your father, and then you until recently with all zeal. There is no need for witnesses to confirm this, because you yourself know it well. For all this service, I ask you for one reward: make it known to everyone why I am dying. They ordered the herald to loudly proclaim this, so that all the princes, noble people and all the people would know that Usphazan was not dying for any crime or guilt before the king, but that he was dying because he was a Christian and did not want to renounce his God. When this request was conveyed to King Sapor, he agreed to fulfill it, since he hoped to bring all Christians into great fear if they heard that the king did not spare the elder Usfazan, an honest and meek man, the royal educator, but for confessing the name of Christ without mercy he put him to death. Saint Usphazan thought differently: he thought that the Christians, whom he had frightened and saddened by his apostasy from Christianity, having learned about his conversion and martyrdom for Christ, would rejoice and be strengthened to firmly endure similar suffering. Thus the holy martyr was beheaded, with a loud exclamation from the herald that Usphazan went to execution for no other guilt than that of confessing Christ. The holy Bishop Simeon, who was in prison with the priests and other Christians, learned about this death of Usfazan. They were filled with inexpressible joy and glorified God, who converted Usfazan from error and crowned him with a martyr's crown. Some time later, being called to the king for the second time, Saint Simeon spoke a lot with boldness before him about the Christian faith and did not want to bow to the sun, or bow down before the king. Then, angry, the king commanded all the Christians who were kept in prison and in bonds to be brought out to be killed on the day of the saving suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. All those taken out for execution numbered one hundred people, among whom were many priests, deacons and clergy. All of them were condemned by the king to be beheaded by the sword before the eyes of Simeon, and after all of them Simeon must also be killed. When the bound Christians were led to death, the eldest of the Magi loudly exclaimed: “If any of you wants to stay alive, then let him bow to the sun with the king, and he will be immediately released.” But not a single Christian responded to his call - no one answered him anything, for no one wanted to prefer temporary life to eternal life, but everyone wanted to joyfully die for Christ the Giver of Life. The holy bishop strengthened everyone to fearlessly endure torture and death, instructing everyone with the words of Holy Scripture and strengthening everyone to endure suffering with the hope of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. And they were all beheaded by the sword. Then Saint Simeon, the shepherd of his verbal flock, who sent his flock before him to Christ, the Chief of the shepherds, after all, he himself put his head under the sword and departed to the Lord 2590. Together with him, both elders who were taken with him, Abdelai and Ananias, both of whom had grown old in years, were killed. When it came to Ananias’ turn to bow his head under the sword, he began to be afraid and tremble with fear. Standing next to him was a certain noble man named Fusik, who was the head of all the lower servants in the palace, who secretly professed Christianity, seeing that the priest Ananias was afraid of being beheaded by the sword, exclaimed, turning to him: - Don’t be afraid, old man! Close your eyes and be strong, for you will immediately see the Divine light. As soon as this man said this, he was immediately recognized as a Christian; he was captured and brought to the king. He fearlessly confessed himself before the king as a Christian and renounced the wicked Persian faith. Hearing his words, the king became very angry and ordered to kill him, but not through beheading with a sword, but in some other painful way. Having cut his neck back, they took out his tongue from there and cut it off, then they tore off the skin from the entire body of the saint; It was in such torment that the saint was killed. At the same time, the tormentors also seized his daughter, a girl named Ascitrea, and after painful torture they killed her too. At the same time, many other confessors of faith in the Lord Jesus were killed. A year after this event, also on Great Friday, Saint Azat, the eunuch, the king’s favorite servant, was put to death, and with him a thousand holy martyrs. The Holy Church estimates the number of those martyred for Christ during all this time at one thousand one hundred and fifty people. Church historians Sozomen 2591 and Nikephoros Callistus 2592 in their writings narrate that at this time countless Christians were killed, on the very day of Christ’s suffering and on the day of Holy Pascha. For as soon as the command of the wicked king Sapor came out to kill all Christians in his country, immediately believers of both sexes, old and young, hastily left their homes and without fear gave themselves up to be killed, joyfully dying for their Lord. When Saint Azat-Skopets was killed, the king was very sorry for him, since he loved him very much, and therefore ordered the killings to stop; He only ordered his magicians to find and torture Christian teachers and mentors, bishops and presbyters, and ordered the rest of the Christians to be spared. We, honoring the memory of all the holy martyrs, glorify the Hero and Crowned Christ, our Savior, glorified forever with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Persia occupies the western part of the Iranian Plateau. Its modern borders are: Türkiye from the west, Afghanistan and Baluchistau from the east, the Indian Ocean from the south and the Trans-Caspian region from the north. The founder of the Persian monarchy was Cyrus, who reigned from 558 to 529 BC, famous for his conquests (he conquered almost all of Western Asia). This was in the 4th century. according to R.H. Sapor II, king of Persia from 310 to 381. The persecution of Christians was raised by Sapor II in the 32nd or 33rd year of his reign, then in 343–344. Seleucia-Ctesiphon is the name of the Persian city, divided by the Tigris River into two opposing parts. This city was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, who reigned from 353 to 281 BC. Sun worship was a feature of almost all pagan religions. A eunuch is a castrated servant, usually intended for service in the harems of the east. Given the opportunity to act on the eastern rulers, both directly and through their beloved wives and concubines, eunuchs often acquired strong influence on the course of state affairs. The pagan name of Usfazan was Gugsciatazad. Cubicularium (from Latin Cubiculum - bedroom) - bed-keeper, observer of the royal bedroom. The death of Saint Simeon and other martyrs followed him in 343 or 344. Church historian Sozomen lived in the 5th century. and served as a lawyer in Constantinople. He continued the “History of the Christian Church” (started by the historian Eusebius) from 323 to 439. Nicephorus Callistus - church historian of the 14th century, monk of the Sophia Monastery in Constantinople. His “Ecclesiastical History” (in 18 books) was completed until the death of the Byzantine Emperor Phocas (c. 611). You might be interested in: