Holy Martyr Arethas and the 4,299 Martyrs with Him (†523) — October 24 / November 6 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 24 according to the Julian Calendar (November 6 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Holy Martyr Arethas and the 4,299 Martyrs with Him (†523).

In the sixth century, Saint Arethas and 4,299 other Christians (according to another account, 4,252) were martyred for their fidelity to Orthodoxy. Arethas was the governor of Najran, a city in Arabia whose inhabitants were Christians.

Dunaan, the Jewish king of the Himyarites (a people living in southern Arabia, by the Arabian Gulf), resolved to uproot Christianity from his land and issued an order to exterminate all followers of Christ. The city of Najran did not renounce the faith of the Savior. The godless ruler then marched against it with a great army to lay it waste. At the walls of Najran the king’s heralds announced that only those who denied Christ would be left alive. Dunaan could not take the Christian city by force and resorted to trickery: he swore an oath that he would not touch the Christians and would merely tax Najran. The townspeople disregarded the counsel of Arethas, believed Dunaan, and let the enemy into the city.

The lawless king ordered a great pyre to be lit and, to frighten the other Christians, all the clergy to be thrown into it. Thus 457 clergymen were burned. The governor Arethas and the other elders were locked in prison. “We will not deny Christ, for He is life to us, and death for His sake is a gain,” the Christians declared with one voice. For their confession of Christ, the godless put to death by torture more than four thousand inhabitants of the city of Najran and its neighboring villages. According to one account, Saint Arethas was run through with a sword.