Zanitas and Lazarus (died March 27, 326 AD) were

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s of the Christian church in the Sasanid Empire. They were monks. With their companions Maruthas, Narses, Helias, Mares, Abibus, Sembeeth, and Sabas, were arrested and imprisoned at Bardiaboch during the persecutions of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

king

Shapur II Shapur II ( , 309–379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth King of Kings (List of monarchs of the Sasanian Empire, Shahanshah) of Sasanian Iran. He took the title at birth and held it until his death at age 70, making him the List ...

. After being comforted and inspired by Jonas and Barachius, they withstood torture and were killed on March 27, 326. In 339, Shapur II began the second and most fierce persecution of Christians in the Parthian kingdom. This persecution lasted for 40 years until Shapur died in 379. The church historian

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

records sixteen thousand unnamed Christians killed at this time including 22 bishops and hundreds of clergy. Traditions records that the brothers Saints Jonas and Barachisius heard about the persecution and went to Bardiaboch, where the nine were awaiting execution. They visited the monks in jail on the eve of the execution and found they had been tortured. Jonas and Barachisius gave comforting words to the prisoners and were themselves executed days later. The eleven martyrs were buried by Habdisotes, a notable Christian of that town. They are commemorated as

pre-congregational saint In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passi ...

s in the Roman Catholic Church on March 27.Saint Lazarus of Bardiaboch

References

Year of birth missing 326 deaths Persian saints Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era 4th-century Christian martyrs Christians in the Sasanian Empire People executed by the Sasanian Empire {{saint-stub

See also

References