Holy Martyrs Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus

Life

Gurias and Samonas were distinguished citizens of Edessa. During a persecution of Christians they hid outside the city and lived in fasting and prayer, encouraging the faithful who came to them for counsel. But they were captured and brought before a judge. The judge threatened them with death if they did not submit to the imperial decree about worshiping idols. The holy martyrs of Christ answered him: "If we submit to the imperial decree, we shall perish, even if thou dost not kill us." After cruel tortures they were thrown into prison, where they remained from August 1 until November 10, enduring hunger, darkness, and distress. Then they were again brought out and tortured; and as they remained unshaken in the Christian Faith, they were condemned to death and beheaded by the sword in the year 322 under the wicked Emperor Licinius. Later Abibus, a deacon of Edessa, also received torments for Christ his Lord, and in the flames gave up his spirit to God. His mother extracted his body whole from the fire and buried it in the tomb together with Saints Gurias and Samonas. When the persecution ceased, Christians erected a church in honor of the three martyrs, Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus, and placed their wonderworking relics in one coffin. Among the numerous miracles of these wondrous saints of God, one is particularly notable. A certain widow in Edessa had a virgin daughter, whom a Gothic soldier from the Greek army married. And as the mother feared to give her daughter to a distant land, the Goth swore at the tomb of the three holy martyrs that he would do no evil to the virgin but would take her as his lawful wife, since, he said, he was unmarried. In fact he was married. And when he took the virgin to his homeland he kept her not as a wife but as a slave, until his lawful wife died. Then in agreement with his other relatives he buried his living slave woman together with his dead wife. The slave woman prayed with tears to the holy martyrs to save her. And they appeared to her in the tomb, took her, and instantly transported her from the Gothic land to Edessa, to their church. The next day, when they opened the church, they found the virgin by the tomb of God's saints, and learned of her miraculous deliverance.

From the Hymn of Praise

O Most Holy Mother of God,Bride of God,To Christ God thou wastA bodily throne;