Holy Martyrs Dadas, Gabdelas and Casdoa (IV)

The holy Martyrs Dadas, Gabdelas and Casdoa were tortured for Christ by Shapur, king of Persia. Dadas was Shapur’s chief courtier, while Gabdelas and Casdoa were the fierce autocrat’s own children. The king knew nothing of Dadas’s Christianity and appointed him governor of one of the provinces of Persia, but as soon as he learned of the blessed one’s faith he stripped him of every honour and brought him before the court of the cruel tormentor Andromelich. The saint was sentenced to be burned, but when he came near the pyre Dadas made the sign of the cross and the fire went out. Shaken by this miracle, the prince Gabdelas publicly confessed Christianity. The judge reported this to the king, and he ordered the blessed one to be cruelly tortured. Amid his torments an angel of the Lord comforted Gabdelas, healed his wounds and revived his strength. Many prisoners who witnessed the saint’s wonderful healings were converted to the true faith and ended their lives as martyrs. Gabdelas’s sister, the king’s daughter Casdoa, secretly visited her brother in prison. She was also present at Gabdelas’s next torture. The executioners hung the martyr on a cross and showered him with arrows, but they glanced off the saint’s body and flew back at the godless themselves. The martyr caught sight of his sister and urged her to believe in the incarnate Saviour. Casdoa too declared herself a Christian, and by her father’s order she was locked in the same cell where her brother was suffering. Gabdelas himself was taken out again the next day to be tortured. The tormentor ordered the martyr to be run through with swords, and within a few hours he committed his soul to the Lord in prayer. The holy body of the man well-pleasing to God was cut into three pieces. The priests Dadi and Abdius and the deacon Armazat carried away the holy relics and buried them with honour. The Christians also found the hacked body of Saint Dadas and reverently committed it too to the earth. At midnight the blessed Gabdelas appeared to the priest Dadi, handed him a vessel of chrism and sent him to baptise Saint Casdoa and give her communion. Dadi carried out the command received from on high, and then said to the handmaid of Christ: “Sleep, sister, until the coming of the Lord!” And Casdoa peacefully reposed.