The Holy Martyrs Jonah and Barachis and the Others with them

The Holy Martyrs Jonah and Barachis and the Others with them

Commemorated on March 28

      The Holy Martyrs Jonah and Barachis and the Others with them: The brothers Jonah and Barachis were Christians. They lived in the village of Yasa in Persia during the time of the emperor Sapor (310-331), a fierce persecutor of Christians. Having learned, that Christians were being tortured in the city of Baravokh, they set out thence, and found there in prison the Martyrs Zanyphanes, Lazaros, Maruphanes, Narsynes, Ilias, Marinos, Habib, Sybeiphines and Sava, – and they encouraged them to hold on firmly to the Christian faith to the very end. The holy brothers were arrested and brought to trial before the Persian princes Masdrath, Siroth and Marmis, who began to urge them to bow down in worship to the sun, and to fire and water. The holy martyrs firmly confessed their faith in Christ in front of them and refused to fulfill the demands of the pagans, for which reason they were subjected to fierce torments.
      Saint Jonah suffered first. They tied the martyr to a tree and for a long time they beat him, and then they dragged him along the ice of a frozen lake, they cut off his fingers and toes, they cut out his tongue, they peeled the skin from his head, and finally they sawed his body in half and threw it in a ditch.
      For the holy Martyr Barachis they put red-hot shackles on his wrists, they poured molten tin in his nose, ears and moth, and they tore at him, having tied him to a turning wheel. The holy martyr gave up his spirit to God after they poured boiling tar in his mouth. The bodies of the holy martyrs Jonah, Barachis and the other brave passion-bearers were buried by a pious Christian by the name of Habdisotes.

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