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- Holy Martyr Arethas and those with him (524)
- 'These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran,
a city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen). When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of
the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he
sought to blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city.
Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city
surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given
and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ. Led by Saint Arethas,
hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly
withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had
been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought
before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they
rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had
not insulted him so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not
one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them
suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with
Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas
soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran
became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At
the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired
into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering
to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this
day as a saint. Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" in Greek.' (Great Horologion)
source: http://www.abbamoses.com |
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