The Hieromartyr Sadok.

Commemorated February 20 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

Sadok was bishop in Persia after St Simeon. One night St Simeon appeared to him in a dream and said: 'Yesterday, me; today, you!' Sadok interpreted these words to his congregation as meaning: 'Last year I suffered; this year you will.' And indeed, in that year, King Sapor arrested him with many of his clergy and people and brought them to trial. He first ordered them to worship fire and the sun as divine. Sadok replied: 'We are ready with all our hearts to die for our God, and will not worship fire or the sun.' They were then tortured and condemned to be beheaded with the sword. Before execution, Sadok raised this prayer to God: 'Wash us from our sins, 0 Lord, in our own blood', - and Sadok gloriously gave his body to death and his soul to God immortal, together with his priests and his people. He suffered in 342 or 344.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK