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In the thirty-second year of king Sapor II, an edict published on Good Friday ordered Christians across Persia to be put to death.

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April 22 · Martyrs

Sts. Azades

Sts. Azades, Acepsimas and Companions

In the thirty-second year of king Sapor II, an edict published on Good Friday ordered Christians across Persia to be put to death.

Traditional feast

April 22
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Martyrs

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints · little is known

In the thirty-second year of king Sapor II, an edict published on Good Friday ordered Christians across Persia to be put to death. The eunuch Azades, the king's great favourite, was killed. The king was so grieved that he limited the persecution to bishops, priests, monks and nuns.

Sozomen counts sixteen thousand martyrs in that persecution. Acepsimas is not named in this part of Butler's entry. Butler says the acts were written by St. Maruthas. Butler gives 341; Baring-Gould, the text on this page, gives 350. The sources differ.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Keep their day. Remember them on April 22 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Usuardus, Ado, Roman Martyrology. Authority: — Solo men, Hist. |)HEN Simeon, bishop of Ctesiphon, whose martyrdom has been already related (March 2 1st), was being conducted to prison, Usthazanes, an aged eimuch, the foster-father of king Sapor, who was sitting at the gates of the palace, arose to do him reverence. Simeon reproachfully turned away his countenance, and passed by, because the eunuch had formerly been a Christian, but had recently submitted to the state religion, and worshipped the sun. This conduct so affected the eunuch, that he wept aloud, and clothing himself in black, sat down in front of the palace. When Sapor heard of what had occurred, he was the more enraged against the Christians. Still he pitied the old man, and strove to bring him over to his sentiments. But finding that Usthazanes was resolved to make atonement for his past cowardice, he commanded that the eunuch’s head should be struck off Next day suffered Simeon, the bishop, and Abdechalaas, and Ananias, two priests. Pusicius, the superintendent of the king’s artisans, 8. 8EGN0RIN. After Cahier.

Feast days

Feast: April 22

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Sts. Azades's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on April 22
Sts. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilles

Sts. Felix

April 28 · Martyrs
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St. George

April 28 · Martyr
I

St. Ibar of Begery

April 28 · Bishop
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.