Hieromartyr Abraham, Bishop of Arbela (+c. 344–347)

The Hieromartyr Abraham, Bishop of Arbela, suffered in Persia during the persecution under Shapur II. When the saint was seized and ordered to worship the sun, he answered: “What folly, to deny the Creator and worship a created thing! Did not God create the sun?!” Abraham was cruelly beaten and tortured, while he prayed fervently in the words of the Protomartyr: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not what they do!” The holy martyr was beheaded with a sword.