These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in the year 524 in Najran, a
city of Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen).
When Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia, and a Judaizer, took power, he sought to
blot out Christianity, especially at Najran, a Christian city. Against the counsels of Arethas, chief man of Najran, the city surrendered to Dhu Nuwas, who immediately broke the word he had given and sought to compel the city to renounce Christ.
Led by Saint Arethas, hundreds of martyrs, including women, children, and babes, valiantly withstood his threats, and were beheaded and burned. After the men had been slain, all the free-born Christian women of Najran were brought before the tyrant and commanded to abjure Christ or die; yet they rebuked the persecutor with such boldness that he said even the men had not insulted him
so contemptuously. So great was their faith that not one woman was found to deny Christ in all Najran, although some of them suffered torments more bitter than most of the men. In alliance with Byzantium, the Ethiopian King Elesbaan liberated Najran from Dhu Nuwas soon after and raised up churches in honour of the Martyrs. Najran became a place of pilgrimage until the rise of Islam a century later. At the end of his life King Elesbaan, who was also called Caleb, retired into solitude as a hermit; he sent his crown to Jerusalem as an offering to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also is commemorated on this day as a saint.
Saint Arethas' name in Arabic, Harith, means "plowman, tiller," much the same as "George" does in Greek.
Apolytikion in the First Tone
Be entreated, O Lord, by the sufferings endured for You by the
Saints, and we pray You, heal all our pain.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
The resplendent festival of the prizewinners on this day is come to
us as an occasion to rejoice; and as we keep it, we glorify our
Lord, the God over all, Who doth dwell on high.
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