A company of 120 Christians taken captive and martyred under the Persian Shah Sapor (Shapur II) in the mid-fourth century, put to death by fire for confessing Christ.
Feast Day
April 6
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The 120 Martyrs of Persia are a company of Christians who were put to death for their faith in the Persian (Sasanian) Empire during the mid-fourth century. The synaxarion commemorates them collectively as a single body of martyrs rather than as individually named saints. According to the received account, they were taken into captivity and, after firmly confessing Christ, were consigned to the flames around the years 344 to 347.
Their martyrdom belongs to the great persecution of Christians carried out under the Persian emperor Sapor, known to history as Shapur II. The Orthodox calendar keeps their memory on April 6.
Timeline 2 moments
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c. 309-379Reign of Shapur IIShapur II ruled the Sasanian Empire, the longest reign of any Sasanian monarch. The state religion was Zoroastrianism. After Constantine the Great made Christianity favored in the Roman Empire and presented himself as protector of Christians everywhere, Shapur II came to regard his own Christian subjects with suspicion as potential agents of a foreign power, and a severe persecution followed.
c. 344-347Martyrdom of the 120The 120 martyrs, having been taken captive, firmly confessed their faith and were burned to death. Their captivity is placed during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Constantios (337-361).
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Historical Context
The deaths of the 120 martyrs fall within the prolonged persecution of Christians in the Sasanian Empire under Shapur II, which intensified in the 340s. The persecution had political as well as religious roots: once the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and styled himself defender of Christians, including those living under Persian rule, the Persian court began to view its Christian population as suspect. As Shapur II prepared for war with Rome, he imposed a double tax on Christian subjects to help finance the conflict, and resistance to these demands sharpened the conflict further.
The scale of this persecution was very large. The early Church historian Sozomen reckoned the identifiable martyrs at upwards of sixteen thousand, with many more whose names were never recorded. Among the better-documented victims of the same period was Barbasceminus, bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, executed with sixteen of his clergy on 14 January 346. The 120 martyrs commemorated on April 6 are remembered as one company drawn from this wider company of the persecuted.
Relics
The synaxarion relates that Saint Shandulios, commemorated on November 3, concealed the relics of the 120 martyrs to preserve them from desecration.
