Martyr Sarbellus of Edessa

Sarbellus was a pagan priest at Edessa in Mesopotamia who, after his conversion to Christ, was put to death for his faith. The sources place his life in the late first and early second centuries, under the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117). He is commemorated together with his sister Bebaia, who was converted and martyred alongside him. In the Orthodox calendar his memory falls on September 4 and October 15, with an additional commemoration noted on January 29.

By the received account, Sarbellus served the idols of Edessa as a priest before he was brought to the Christian faith by Barsimaeus, the bishop of the city. The synaxarion relates that the bishop repeatedly warned him of the harm done by leading souls into idol-worship; after one of the pagan festivals, Sarbellus sought out Barsimaeus and asked to be baptized together with his sister. At his baptism he is said to have received the Christian name Thathuel.

The sources do not agree on every detail of his death. The October 15 account and the wider synaxarion tradition relate that, after he refused to return to idolatry, he and Bebaia were tortured at length and then beheaded. Other recensions describe a more prolonged passion, while the entry attached to September 4 remembers a Sarbellus who was stoned to death. Because the early acts survive in differing forms, the database records his martyrdom as stoning while noting the variant traditions.