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Ss. Sapor, Isaac and Companions
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Saints and feasts
Ss. Sapor, Isaac and Companions
Bishops, Mahanes, Abraham and Simeon, Martyrs
Sapor and Isaac were bishops who suffered in Persia with Mahanes, Abraham and Simeon. Butler follows the older Syriac martyr accounts and distinguishes their different deaths.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 30, “Ss Sapor and Isaac, Bishops, Mahanes, Abraham and Simeon, Martyrs,” pp. 559-562.
During the persecution under King Sapor II, Christians were accused of rejecting the religious worship demanded in his kingdom. Butler names the bishops Sapor and Isaac with Mahanes, Abraham and Simeon among those imprisoned and brought before the king. The bishop Sapor is a different person from the ruler who bears the same name.
The prisoners confessed their faith in the one God. The account describes the punishment of the two bishops: Isaac was stoned, while Sapor died from his wounds in prison. Their companions were also put to death after refusing to abandon their confession.
The narrative records different sufferings and deaths rather than a single common execution. Christians privately buried their bodies. Butler draws the account from the Syriac acts published by Stephen Evodius Assemani and places the group’s remembrance under November 30. Their notice is separate from that of Narses and Joseph printed immediately before it.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 sources. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
The bishops and their companions are distinct from the Persian ruler Sapor II and from the preceding group of Narses and Joseph. The source’s long discussion of Persian religion is not part of this condensed biography.
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