Lives and Martyrdoms of the Saints, Volume 1

upon him, he commanded that he be killed on the spot. And it was fulfilled at that very hour by the sword for the sake of the faith in Christ.

There was another one of the wealthy princes of the Persians, a Christian who had a thousand servants, whose name was Sain. The king tried many times to turn him from the Christian faith to magi-ism Zoroastrian fire-worship. When he could not win him over, he separated him from his thousand servants, and gave him to the one who was the most despised, useless, filthy, and loathsome in appearance of all of them, and gave his master to him as a servant, and his wife to him in marriage; and he commanded them to serve him in obedience. And all those torments of mockery came upon him, and he did not depart from the hope of Christ. They also seized one of the deacons of the church, whose name was Benjamin, and threw him into prison for two years.

And in those days, ambassadors were sent from the King of the Romans, Theodosius, to Persia. And they heard about the deacon Benjamin, that he was being held in prison for Christ's sake, and they asked King Yazdegerd to release him from the prison. And the king said: "Let him reassure us with his own signed document that he will not convert any Persian magus Zoroastrian priest to his faith, and that he will not teach anyone in our land with his doctrine, and then, for the sake of your request, I will release him from his bonds." Hearing this, Benjamin did not accept the king's order, saying, "It is impossible for me to withhold the grace of my God from men; rather, as much as I am able, I shall illuminate those who are darkened by error, so that I may not suffer punishment alongside those who hide the talent of their Lord." And the King of Persia, because of the pleas and the request of the ambassadors of the Roman Emperor Theodosius, released the blessed confessor of Christ, the deacon Benjamin. But once he had gone out, he did not cease to teach and baptize the servants of fire and the magi Zoroastrian priests of Persia. And after one year passed, when the Roman ambassadors returned, they reported to King Yazdegerd what he was doing, and