The sufferings of the holy martyrs Manuel, Saul and Ishmael

The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Saul and Ishmael were brothers and originated from the country of Persia [the Persian state occupied at that time a huge space between the Tigris, the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea].

She brought up her children in Christian piety from their earliest years, just as she nursed them in their infancy, and brought them up in the fear of God; and the blessed presbyter Eunoik begat these holy brethren by the bath of holy baptism, and taught them the word of God.

But having dedicated their physical powers to the Persian king Alamandar [Alamandar, as a Persian king, is completely unknown in history; some think he was one of the Persian generals] - they always worked with their spirit to the heavenly King, our Lord Jesus Christ, trying to please Him in all their good works.

Once they were sent by their king to the Greco-Roman emperor Julian the Apostate [Julian, son of Constantius, brother of Constantine the Great, was born in 331 C.E.; he was initially educated in the Christian religion, but when he became emperor in 355, he openly renounced Christianity, for which he received the name Apostate.] , in order to make peace with him.

But when he heard that they were Christians, he was very angry with them, and, contrary to the customs and laws common to all nations, delivered them up to be tormented for the faith of Christ, and put them to death after the most grievous tortures. This was their martyrdom.

One day the lawless emperor decided to go to Bithynia, to a place called the Orgia Trigon [Trigon is thought to be a temple dedicated to idols near Chalcedon], because one of the heathen festivals that disgust God was about to begin.

When he had sailed from Constantinople to Chalcedon, and had come to the place which we have named, he began at once, with all the multitude of the people that were assembled there, to celebrate their filthy feast, worshipping idols, and offering innumerable sacrifices to devils: - and behold, there began a continual feasting with singing and music and tambourines, - and in honour of the pernicious heathen gods behind the altar,

And indeed, there has been a great transgression in it.

But the servants of Christ, Mannuel, Saul, and Ishmael, standing there with the emperor, would not even look at this wicked feast; and they withdrew a moment from the rejoicing and stood at a distance, weeping and weeping over the seduction and error of these men, and praying to the Lord God - and for themselves - that they might not be defiled by their association with the idolatrous sacrifices - and for all those who err, that the Lord might lead them to a knowledge of the truth.

"Lord", they prayed, "let not these men be in such great peril of evil, and let not Thy intelligent creature be in such madness; for they are here more foolish than even the stones and trees they worship: at least their wooden idols, as an unfeeling and soulless creature, know not what they do before them; these same men, whom Thou hast honored with a rational soul and being in Thy image and likeness, neither see nor see.

They know their own godliness, and their way is darkness. Their end is destruction.

And the king's chamberlain saw them, and said unto them, Behold, the king's chamberlains stand by the king's table; for he thought they were idolaters.

But the servants of Christ answered the king's chamberlain, who had invited them, with one accord: "Depart from us, for we will not abandon the faith in which we were brought up from youth, and therefore we will not abandon our Lord and worship the demons that live among you; and may it not be with us that we will be involved in this manifest error: we are not so foolish and unreasonable as to despise the living God, our Creator, and worship a soulless creature.

And we have not come this far to forsake our faith, but to make peace between the kingdoms of Persia and of Greece and Rome; and thy king and all his consorts know that they will not turn us from their wickedness, though they should deliver us into the fire, or torment us, or take our lives.

And when the keeper of the bed departed from the saints, he told the words to Julian, and he was immediately enraged and angry with them; but he decided not to punish them now, lest his wicked feast be hindered, but delayed it until the morning, and ordered that the servants of God should be put in the dungeon. And they went into the dungeon, and praised the Lord.

Let us sing to the Lord, let us sing to God, the stronghold of our salvation; let us come before him with praise, let us sing to him with song. And who is a God like our God?

"You, good men, are sent here by your king as men loyal to himself and to us in goodwill, to restore the long-awaited peace between our two kingdoms, which can be restored only by loving agreement and mutual friendship.

But what agreement have you with us, and where is your love for us, if you did not yesterday join us in feasting and rejoicing for the same gods that you Persians worship?

- he chose from all religious teachings what he liked and was generally in accordance with his worldview; he believed in one supreme God, but identified Him with Mithra or the sun god of the eastern cult; and the Persians, as is known, also worshiped the sun as their main deity.] ?

For the Persians, as we do, worship the sun, moon, and stars, the most glorious fire-power, and our other gods; why then have you refused to worship them with us, and not to join us in our service to them, if only that our conditions for the conclusion of peace might be stronger and more firm?

But if you despise and despise our gods, and if you do not agree with us, then you have not come to make peace, but to break it, and to renew enmity and war.

We have come to you from our king to make terms of peace, that your soldiers may not cross our borders, and our soldiers your borders, that we may not despoil one another's land, and that our merchants may always have free access to your kingdom, and yours to our land, and that both of them may return to their homes without any offense.

Let every man worship what he will, and as he will. But in faith there is never war between kingdoms, but strife, contention, and battle are always for cities, provinces, and for their borders and bounds.

For thou speakest not of the prosperity of thy kingdom, nor of the peace of our neighbouring kingdom, but of the gods, and of the faith.

For there have come many who have slipped in among us to turn us away from our Lord Jesus Christ, but by the grace of our Lord we stand firm in the confession of our faith.

and lies.

Then the proconsul answered, "You are ignorant and do not know the language. How is it that you speak abusively against the faith we preach?"

Say: 'I have studied your scriptures, and I have found nothing in them but falsehood, and I have rejected them, so that I may not fall into error because of the ambiguity of what is written therein.

I therefore advise you to put away this childish and false reasoning and to believe what the best philosophers of old have taught you. If you are unwilling to accept my good advice, then against your will, you will listen to the torments which I will immediately deliver you.

We were instructed by the Lord not to be afraid of those who kill the body or to think of what to say in defense of those who want to torment us.

And who is more ignorant than he who worships Allah, the Creator of all things, and worships Him, or he who worships a thing that has no life, a living God, or a carved thing, or a piece of wood, or whatever resembles it? Verily, he who worships a thing that is dead instead of Allah is in a state of madness. Verily, he who worships the Living One, he is wise.

For this is the first task of the human mind, to know its Creator, the Giver of all gifts, and to believe in Him and to serve Him diligently; and to fail to know Him, its Creator and benefactor, and to serve its enemy, the soul-destroying devil, is the utmost folly.

They claimed to be wise, but they became fools because their foolish minds were darkened. You have become like them; only worse.

You have denied Christ and God, and now you are called by all who call on the true Lord, an Eleni, because you are a Christian, and because you are a godly man, you are called a blasphemer and a godless man.

The martyrs were stripped naked, and laid on the ground, and beaten mercilessly with harsh belts on their backs and bellies, and then hanged in the place of torment, their hands and feet nailed high to the tree, and their whole body torn with iron teeth.

But the martyrs of Christ, having courageously endured these great torments, lifted up their eyes to heaven and prayed to the Lord, thus calling out to Him: "O Lord!

Thou, who was once nailed to the cross by the unbelieving Jews, and who did away with the sins of the world by the passion and death of the cross, behold us now hanging on the cross, wounded, and our nature being weak, send us Thy help from on high, and give us relief in our sufferings, for it is in Thee alone that we have dared to undertake this martyrdom.

How grievous and terrible are these torments, O Lord, which thou knowest and seest, but for thy love, O sweetest Jesus, they are pleasant unto us.

This Angel, who comforted the suffering, gave them such joy in their suffering, that it was as if they no longer felt the pain of their wounds, and it seemed as if they had never even endured all these torments.

And now, behold, I will spare you no more pains, and I hope that after this little punishment ye will now be of one mind with us. And the holy martyrs, knowing all the guile of his words, answered him with greater boldness,

Do not regard us as fools. For if we are being persecuted for the sake of Christ, we will be persecuted even more.

And when Julius, the lawless one, saw that Manuel, being the eldest of the brothers, spoke more boldly and boldly than the other brothers, he ordered him to be taken aside, and he himself, having begun a conversation with the other two, with Saul and Ishmael, began to speak to them with cunning:

"You are children of one father, but you are not of the same nature: your elder brother is not even worthy to be called your brother, for he is stubborn, angry, shameless, talks a lot and quarrels, and, remaining unyielding in his folly, drags you after himself and prevents you from choosing the best for yourself; while you, as I see, are people of good nature, gentle, and not quarrelsome, and in general are reasonable.

And now hear my good counsel, and let your brother perish in his vanity, and in his folly, and sacrifice unto our gods, and then ye shall have great mercy from them, and from us rich gifts and honor.

And when they were come to the place of torment, and had burned their ribs with burning candles, they praised the Lord, and rebuked the tormentors.

And when he saw that he stood fast in the testimony of Christ, he persecuted him, as he had the brethren: and he put iron nails upon the heads of every one of them, and sharp nails upon the nails of their hands and feet, and cut off their heads with the sword, and burned their bodies.

And so the holy martyrs were led to the place of execution, to a place called Constantine, where, before shedding their blood, they offered this prayer to the Lord in the last battle:

"O God, who brought all things into being from nothingness, who humbled Himself for our salvation in the last summer, who took the form of a slave and suffered the cross to deliver us from the bondage of sin and to make us heirs of His kingdom,

O Lord, turn to Yourself the people who are so many around us, and open their minds to the knowledge of the truth, so that they may know You, the One True God, and worship You alone, and receive salvation.

And as the holy martyrs were praying, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, Come, and receive the crown of glory, for you have done valiantly.

But when the wicked servants were about to execute another command of their wicked king, to burn the bodies of Christ's martyrs, the earth was instantly shaken by the command of God, and the place where the saints lay was deeply settled, and the abyss thus formed received the bodies of the martyrs and hid them, lest the wicked hands of the tormentors should touch them any more, and the power of the fire should turn them to ashes; and all the servants fled in fear.

When the two days were over, the earth shook again, and the fragrance of the holy ones was poured out on the roofs.

Then the faithful, filled with great joy, lovingly took the bodies of the saints and buried them with honor in this wonderful place; after that from the tomb of the holy martyrs abundant healings began to flow to all the sick.

After the murder of the Persian messengers, the holy martyrs Manuil, Saul and Ishmael, he went with his entire army to Persia [As is known, Julian went on a campaign against the Persians on March 5, 363].

And when the king of Persia heard that his ambassadors were slain, he was grieved, and greatly wroth; and when he heard that the transgressor Julian came against him, he also gathered all his army, and stood on the border of his kingdom against his proud enemy.

And it was in this battle that the apostate Julian was struck with the wrath of God. The wicked emperor was struck by the invisible hand and died in great agony, ending up a laughingstock to all the Persians on whom he had so proudly stood, with his vain hope, for the joy of the demons in whom he believed and in whom he had so hoped.

And the Christians, being thus delivered from cruel persecution and torment, glorified their Saviour, Christ God, to whom be honor and glory from us also, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now, and in due time, and forevermore. Amen.

740 A.D.) wrote in their memory a canon.] .Condak, vowel 2: By the faith of Christ's wounding of the all-blessed, and this faithfully drank the cup, the Persian service and audacity to the ground laid low, the Trinity of equality, the prayers making about us all.