Eikon

Benjamin of Persia

The Holy Martyr Benjamin the Deacon of Persia

Martyr · Deacon · d. c. 424

Commemorated 31 March — Commemoration with the martyrs of Yazdegerd's persecution, 13 October — Byzantine synaxarion memory

Benjamin of Persia (†c. 424) was a deacon of the Persian church and a tireless evangelist who converted many Zoroastrian Persians to Christ during the great persecution that broke out at the end of the reign of Yazdegerd I. Imprisoned two years for his preaching, he was released at the intercession of a Roman envoy on the pledge that he would keep silence — a pledge he declared himself unable to keep, for he could not hide the light entrusted to him — and when he resumed his preaching he was put to death under Bahram V with tortures of studied cruelty. His story is told by the church historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus, nearly a contemporary. He is commemorated on October 13 and again on March 31.

Benjamin's martyrdom belongs to the persecution that ended a long peace for the Church of Persia. Through most of the reign of the Sassanid king Yazdegerd I (399–420) the Christians of the empire had enjoyed toleration; in the king's last years the burning of a fire-temple by the bishop Abda (see the identity discussion in the entry for Abdias of Persia) gave the Zoroastrian clergy their occasion, and a persecution began which his son and successor Bahram V (420–438) pressed with ferocity, driving refugees across the Roman frontier and helping to provoke the Roman–Persian war of 421–422.

Benjamin, a deacon, was seized in this persecution for preaching the Gospel to the Persians and converting many from the religion of the Magi, and lay in prison for two years. An envoy of the Roman emperor, come to the Persian court, learned of him and begged his release; the king granted it on condition that the deacon give his word never again to preach to the king's subjects, and the envoy answered for him. But Benjamin, as Theodoret tells it, declared that he could not accept the condition: it was not possible for him to hide the light that had been entrusted to him, for the punishment of the servant who buried his talent stood written in the Gospel. He took up his preaching where he had left it. Denounced again and brought before the king, he refused to renounce Christ, and was tortured to death: sharpened reeds were driven under the nails of his hands and feet and into the tender parts of his body, and when this could not break him, a knotted stake was forced into his bowels, under which torment he gave up his soul, about the year 424 — the OCA's calendars give the span 421–424.

Feast and commemoration

October 13 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 26), a synaxarion memory without proper hymnography, listed by the Greek Menaion, the Slavic calendars and the OCA after the day's principal martyrs; and March 31, with the Persian martyrs of the same persecution. No proper service is appointed on either day; the common of a martyr serves where his memory is kept liturgically.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)

Thy martyr Benjamin, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from thee, our God; for possessing thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

No pre-modern or free-licensed image of Benjamin has been identified; he is listed among the wanted icons. He would be painted as a young deacon in the sticharion and orarion, holding the martyr's cross, among the martyrs of the Persian church.

Disputed questions

  • The year. Theodoret's narrative places the martyrdom in the early years of Bahram V; the calendars print 421–424, and c. 424 is the conventional date. Nothing more precise is transmitted.
  • Not to be confused with Benjamin of Nitria (†c. 392, kept December 29), the venerable ascetic and healer of the Egyptian desert who reposed in peace — a wholly different saint of a different land, office, and manner of death.
  • The two commemorations. The Byzantine synaxaria carry Benjamin twice: on October 13, where the Greek Menaion synaxarion lists his bare memory after the day's principal martyrs, and on March 31, where he is commemorated in company with the other victims of Yazdegerd's and Bahram's persecution (the bishop Abda among them) and where the OCA places its fuller notice of him — as does the Roman Martyrology. This entry is authored at October 13, the first appearance of his memory in the church year, with March 31 recorded as a secondary feast; the March witness of the Greek calendar rests on the received synaxarion tradition and should be spot-checked against a live Greek source when March 31 is authored.

Sources

  1. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Ecclesiastical History 5.39 — the near-contemporary account: the two years' imprisonment, the Roman envoy's pledge, the refusal, and the manner of the martyrdom.
  2. Greek Menaion synaxarion for October 13 (consulted live at glt.goarch.org) — the memory of "the holy martyr Benjamin the Deacon."
  3. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, October 13 (consulted live) — the notice and the 421–424 dating; the OCA's fuller Life stands at March 31.
  4. Russian calendar for the day (consulted live at azbyka.ru) — the Slavic listing "hieromartyr Benjamin, deacon" (the Slavic books extend the hieromartyr styling to the martyred deacon; the taxonomy of this repository reserves the term for bishops and priests, and the difference is recorded here).