Holy Priest-Martyr Sadoc

Life

He was a bishop in Persia after Saint Simeon. Once, Saint Simeon appeared to him in a dream and said: "Yesterday I, today you!" Sadoc interpreted these words to his flock as meaning: last year I suffered, this year it will be you. And indeed, that year King Sapor seized him together with much of the clergy and the people and brought them to trial. He first commanded them to bow down to fire and sun as to deities. Sadoc replied: "We are ready to die fervently for our God, but to the sun and fire we will not bow down." They were then tortured and condemned to be beheaded by the sword. Before the beheading, Sadoc raised a prayer to God: "Wash us, O Lord, in our blood from our sins!" And gloriously did Sadoc, together with his priests and faithful, deliver their bodies to death and their souls to the immortal God. They suffered in the year 342 or 344.