Venerable Martyr Anastasius

Life

Anastasius was a Persian by birth. His pagan name was Magundates. When Emperor Heraclius was at war with the Persians, Magundates fled to the Christians, went to Jerusalem where he was baptized and received the name Anastasius. It was not enough for him that he was baptized, but he also became a monk, that he might wholly give himself to serving the Lord. Besides other struggles he would read very early the lives of the holy martyrs and reading them, he wet the book with tears, himself ardently longing for martyrdom. The Lord at last crowned him with the martyr's crown. He lay long in prison and was bitterly tormented, until Emperor Chosroes pronounced upon him the sentence of death. According to this sentence Anastasius was drowned in water, then after being pulled from the water, the executioner cut off his head and sent it to the emperor. He suffered on January 22, 628 in the city of Bethsaloe, near Nineveh.