Hieromartyr Acepsimas, Bishop of Naeson, and Others with Him

Life

The eighty-year-old elder Acepsimas, filled with every Christian virtue, was sitting one day in his home with his guests. At that moment a certain child filled with the grace of the Spirit of God ran up to the old bishop, kissed him on the head, and said: "Blessed is this head, for it will receive torment for Christ!" This prophecy soon came true. King Shapur raised up a fierce persecution of Christians throughout all of Persia, and Saint Acepsimas was seized and brought before a certain prince of the priests. As the captured and bound bishop stood there, one of his household approached and asked what he commanded concerning his house. The saint replied to him: "That is no longer my house; I am departing irrevocably to the house on high." After great interrogations he was cast into prison, where the next day Joseph, a presbyter and elder of seventy years, and Aithalas the deacon were also brought. After three years of imprisonment and many torments, they beheaded Acepsimas, and Joseph and Aithalas they buried up to their hips in the earth, and the merciless ones commanded Christians to stone them. Joseph's body disappeared that night by Divine Providence, and over the body of Aithalas grew a myrtle tree, which healed every disease and every affliction in people. And so it remained for five years, but then the malicious and envious unbelievers cut down that tree. These soldiers of Christ suffered in the fourth century in Persia during the reign of the pagan king Shapur.

From the Hymn of Praise

George the martyrGeorge the victorious:O have mercy now upon usProtect us with prayers