HEDAR 07 (November 16) | The Ethiopian Synaxarium

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, ONE GOD.  AMEN.

On this day Saint George the Great, the Alexandrian, became a martyr.  The father of this holy man was a foreigner, and he was of the men of Alexandria, and he had no son. And the festival of the dedication of the church of Saint George the Martyr in the city of Lydda arrived, now it was celebrated on the seventh day of Khedar, and he entreated Saint George to intercede on his behalf with God so that He might give him a son, and he called his name George.  And the mother of this holy man was the sister of Armenius, governor of the city of Alexandria, and when his parents died, he lived with his mother’s brother; and his days were fifteen years.  And George loved the Church.  Now Armenius had an only daughter, and [one day] she went out with her friends to divert herself, and she found a monastery outside the city of Alexandria wherein monks were gathered together, and they were singing sweet hymns.  And the sound of their hymns and their praises came and penetrated the heart of the maiden, and she began to ask George, the son of her father’s sister, to tell her the meaning of the words of the hymns which the monks were singing.  And as he was explaining to her the meaning of the hymns and making her to understand them, he told her of the punishment which would come upon sinners, and of the peace and joy which would come upon the righteous and the virtuous.  When she returned to her father Armenius she confessed our Lord Jesus Christ before him.  And Armenius began to persuade her, and he said unto her, “O my daughter, do not this thing”; but she would neither listen to his words nor obey him; and he commanded the soldiers to cut off her head, and they cut it off with the sword, and she received the crown of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens.  And certain men told the governor, saying, “It is George, thy sister’s son, who hath led astray thy daughter.”  And the governor seized Saint George, and after he had tortured him very severely he sent him to the city of ‘Ensena, where they tortured him very severely, and afterwards cut off his holy head with a sword; and George received the crown of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens.  Now there was there a certain deacon whose name was Samuel, and he took his holy body and carried it to the city of Manuf.  And when the wife of Armenius, the brother of the mother of Saint George, knew that George had become a martyr, she sent and took his body and placed it with the body of her daughter in the city of Alexandria.  Salutation to George.

On this day also the holy man Abba Nahrew became a martyr.  This holy man [came] from the district of the Fayyum in the country of Egypt, and he feared God exceedingly.  And when he heard the stories about the martyrs, he went to the city of Alexandria, and wished to die for the sake of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And [our Lord] said unto him in a vision, “Needs must that thou go and die in the city of Antioch.”  And he pondered in his heart and said, “How can I possibly get there?”  And he sought out a ship in which he could embark.  And God sent unto him the angel Michael who carried him on his wings from the city of Alexandria, and brought him to the city of Antioch, and set him down near Diocletian; and Nahrew confessed the Living God.  And the emperor asked him his name, and the name of his city, and Nahrew told him that he was from the country of Egypt, and the emperor wondered about [the manner of] his coming.  And the emperor tried to persuade him [to deny Christ], and he promised him that he would give him much money, and costly raiment, if he would submit to him and offer sacrifice to his idols, but he would not hearken to what he said unto him.  And the emperor spoke a second time, saying, “I will torture thee with very severe tortures,” but Nahrew was neither afraid of him nor did he obey his command.  And the emperor commanded his soldiers to torture him with many different kinds of tortures.  On the first occasion he drove savage lions to attack him, on the second he burnt him in the fire, on the third he tortured him on the wheel, and on the fourth he boiled him in a large cauldron.  When the emperor was tired to torturing him he commanded his soldiers to cut off his head, and they cut it off and he received the crown of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens.  And it came to pass that instead of being martyred in the city of Antioch, all the martyrs who ought to have been martyred in the city of Antioch, were martyred in the land of Egypt; and similarly this holy man Abba Nahrew, who was from the country of Egypt, and should have been martyred in Egypt, received the crown of martyrdom in Antioch.  At that time Saint Julian dwelt in Antioch, and he took the body of Nahrew the martyr and sent it away in charge of two of his servants to his country with great honor. Salutation to the man who was borne on the wings of Michael.

And on this day also died Abba Minas, Bishop of the city of Tamai.  This holy man was from the city of Gamnudi and he was the