Holy Martyr Hormisdas

Life

He was a nobleman at the court of the Persian King Isdegerdes. Since he would not renounce Christ, the king degraded him, stripping him of both his rank and his estate, and sent him to tend cattle. The king hoped that Hormisdas would quickly come to regret the loss of his rank and estate and bow down before the idols. But the king was mistaken. Hormisdas peacefully tended the cattle and kept his faith. Therefore the king put him to cruel tortures, by which he succeeded only in exhausting the body of Christ's martyr but not in changing his spirit. At last the holy Hormisdas was slain, in the year 418, immediately after the suffering of Saint Abdas the Bishop (see March 31). He suffered on earth and was glorified in heaven.