Mart Tarbytha

Tarbytha was the sister of Shim’un Bar Sabba’e, and a Daughter of the Covenant. After the martyrdom of Shim’un, the queen of that region fell ill and she was told by the Jews, whom she favored, that: “the sisters of Shim’un have put spells on you because their brother has been put to death.” Believing what she was told, the queen immediately had Tarbytha, her married sister, and her servant arrested and brought before the Mobed. When the women were brought into the men’s presence, they saw Tarbytha’s beautiful looks and fine appearance, excelling that of all other women and each of them desired her secretly for themselves. Each one of them said to himself, “I’ll rescue her from death so that she can be my wife.”

The Mobed then spoke to the women: “In your anger over your brother being put to death you have gone so far as to transgress your own law, performing sorcery on the queen, despite the fact that you are not allowed to do this.” The glorious Tarbytha spoke: “What bad or hateful thing has been done to my brother Shim’un so that as a result we should risk losing our salvation at God’s hands? For even though you may have killed him out of hatred and jealousy, he is nevertheless alive in the Kingdom on high.”
After this, they sent the three women off to prison, to be detained there until their execution. The next day the Mobed sent a message to Tarbytha saying, “I will intercede with the king and I will save the three of you from death- on the condition that you become my wife.” On hearing this, Tarbytha was greatly shaken and replied, “Shut your mouth, you wicked man and enemy of God; don’t ever again utter anything so disgusting. Your filthy words make no impression on ears that are pure, and your foul proposition does not have any effect on my mind, which is chaste and holy: for I am the betrothed of Christ. In His name I am preserving my virginity, and upon my hope in Him I am hanging my sure conviction.”

The two other officials likewise sent messages to her on the same lines, each concealing the matter from the other. With indignation and greater anger she gave them an adamant refusal. Permission was given to execute the women in whatever means the men liked. Now they said that their bodies should be cut in two and that the queen should pass between the two halves, after which she would be healed. As the women were being taken out for execution, the Mobed sent another proposal to Tarbytha telling her that, if she listened to his proposal, neither she nor her companions would be put to death. The chaste woman, however, cried out with a loud voice, reviling him: “Foul and perverted man, why do you crazily rave over something that is neither proper nor permissible? I shall die a heroic death, for thus shall I obtain true life; I will not live in an ignominious way and then eventually die.”

They took the three holy women outside the city and there they sawed their bodies in halves, and suspended them on six forked pieces of wood, three on each side of the road. The queen was then conveyed to where they were and was made to walk between the bodies that she may be healed. The glorious women were crowned on the fifth of the lunar month Iyyar (approximately May).

 

(Taken from Holy Women of the Syrian Orient ©1987)