Jonah and Barachisius

Jonah and Barachisius came from the region of Beth-Asa in Persia and had embraced the monastic life. When Shapur II unleashed his forty-year persecution against the Church of Persia — suspecting the Christians, who shared the faith of the now-Christian Roman empire, of disloyalty — many were arrested and pressed to worship the sun and fire. Hearing that nine Christians of a neighbouring place had been condemned, the two brothers left their monastery and went to strengthen them, visiting them in prison and exhorting them to stand firm; the nine were martyred.

For this the brothers were themselves arrested and brought before the magistrates. Refusing to adore the sun, the fire and the water of the Persian religion, they were subjected to a long succession of cruelties, each recorded in the Acts: Barachisius was made to swallow molten pitch and was crushed; Jonah was frozen in an icy pool, his fingers and toes cut off, and at last crushed in a press until he died. Both bore their torments with prayer and thanksgiving, and completed their martyrdom. Their bodies were bought by a Christian and honourably buried, and the account of their passion, drawn up by an eyewitness, was carried to the West and preserved.