Dada, Gabdelas and Casdoa

The Holy Martyrs Dada, Gabdelas and Casdoa of Persia

Martyr

Dada, Gabdelas and Casdoa were martyrs of fourth-century Persia under King Shapur II, whose long persecution made the Persian church a church of martyrs to rival the early centuries under Rome. The received account makes them members of the king's own household: Dada a great noble and steward of the court, secretly a Christian, condemned to the fire when discovered; and Gabdelas and Casdoa the king's son and daughter, converted by the miracles that attended Dada's and each other's sufferings, and dying of tortures inflicted at their own father's command. They are commemorated together on September 29.

The passion of these martyrs belongs to the hagiography of the great persecution that Shapur II (309–379) loosed on the Christians of the Persian empire from the 340s onward. As the Greek tradition received it, Dada was a magnate of the royal court — the accounts style him chief steward and a kinsman of the king — who was appointed governor of one of the provinces while his Christianity was still unknown. When it was discovered, he was stripped of his honours and handed to a judge the acts name Andromelik, who condemned him to be burned; but as Dada approached the pyre he sealed himself with the sign of the Cross, and the fire went out.

The king's son Gabdelas, witnessing this, confessed Christ before all. Handed over in his turn, he endured protracted tortures through which — the acts relate — an angel comforted him and his wounds were repeatedly healed, so that many who were imprisoned with him believed and themselves suffered, among them a sorcerer named Gargal who had been sent to overcome him. Hung upon a cross and shot at, he was untouched while the arrows returned upon the archers. His sister Casdoa, who had secretly visited and tended him in prison, was won to Christ by him; confessing openly, she was beaten at her father's command and thrown into the prison where her brother lay. When she despaired under her wounds, Gabdelas prayed and assured her she would suffer no more.

The acts crown Gabdelas's passion with a miraculous baptism: desiring the sacrament before death and asking two priests, Dadias and Abdias, for water and oil, he was overshadowed by a cloud that poured out both, while a voice declared, "Servant of God, you have already received Baptism." He was then pierced with spears and died in prayer; his body, cut in three parts, was gathered and buried by the priests Dadias and Abdias and the deacon Armazates. Dada, after long torture, was likewise cut to pieces, and Christians buried his remains in secret. To Casdoa the martyred Gabdelas appeared by night, sending the priest Dadias to anoint her and give her the Holy Mysteries; and with the priest's words "Sleep, sister, until the coming of the Lord," she departed to Christ. Her mother — the queen, in the logic of the account — prepared her body and laid her, with joy, beside her brother.

Feast and commemoration

September 29 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 12), in the shadow of the day's principal saint, Cyriacus the Hermit. No proper service is appointed; the common of martyrs serves where their memory is kept liturgically. The Greek synaxarion of the day also carries the allied Persian memories of the martyrs Casdoos and Gudelia (see Disputed questions).

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

No pre-modern icon of the three has been identified. They would be depicted after the manner of the Persian martyrs: Dada as a nobleman and Gabdelas as a young prince in Persian court dress, Casdoa as a maiden, all bearing the martyr's cross.

Disputed questions

Historicity. The passion is legendary in form, and no children of Shapur II answering to Gabdelas and Casdoa are known to the historical record; the making of royal converts is a recurring motif of the Persian martyr-acts. The historical kernel — court Christians of high rank martyred under Shapur II — is entirely consistent with the documented persecution, which the Syriac acts of the Persian martyrs attest in detail.
The grouping and names vary in the sources. The verses of the Greek synaxarion for September 29 commemorate "Dada and Gobdelaas, son of Shapur king of the Persians" as one memory, and a pair "Casdoos and Casdoa" as another, alongside a Persian woman martyr Gudelia the same day; the Slavic tradition, followed by the OCA, joins Dada, Gabdelas and Casdoa as a single company. The names are transmitted in many forms (Gobdelaas, Gaveddai; Kasdoa, Kazdoa, Kasdoe), and the relationship of Casdoos and Gudelia to the group is not settled. Per the practice of this collection the transmitted variance is recorded rather than harmonised.
Not to be confused with the martyr Dada of Dorostolum, who suffered with Quinctilian and Maximus under Diocletian and is commemorated on April 28 — a Balkan martyr of a different persecution, though the rare shared name invites confusion.