Today is the feast of St. Benjamin, deacon. He reminds me a little of St. James the Dismembered, whose feast day we celebrated last Nov. 27th, because he also suffered at the hands of the Persian king. Those Iranians, I tell you -- they're fierce. They chopped off limb after limb of St. James and they shoved reeds under the finger- and toenails and in all the joints of St. Benjamin. Finally, when he refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods, they burned him at the stake.
Persia had been fearsomely persecuted under King Jezdigerd (same King St. James served in court under), and then experienced a relative lull during at least the early part of the reign of his son Varanes. But Benjamin was to suffer for the rash actions of his bishop, who burned a Persian temple to the ground, leading Varanes t renew the persecutions begun under his father. Benjamin had been in prison once (for evangelization) but had been released at the request of the Roman ambassador. Released, he was arrested again after his bishop's action ostensibly because he would not worship fire. To the king he said: "Do what you will with me, but I will not deny the Creator of heaven and earth, and worship perishable creatures. What do you think of a subject who gives to others the allegiance due to you?" Benjamin suffered about the year 422.
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