Mar Shim’un Bar Sabba’e

In the year 344 AD, by tradition on Good Friday, the bishop who held the See which would later be called the Patriarchate of Babylon was executed by the Persian emperor Shapur II. Because of the tension between the Zoroastrian Persian and the Christian Roman empires, some in Persia began to see the Christians of there land as outsiders and spies, since they shared the religion of the enemy. The accusation, a false one, was that even the bishop of the empire’s capital city Selucia-Ctesiphon, Shim’un, was personally a spy for Caesar. The Shah decided to institute a double tax on his Christian population, since this would break the back of an already poor population. Even worse, he ordered that Mar Shim’un, the son of a garment stainer, (“bar Sabba’e”), was to collect the taxes himself.

The noble bishop refused, saying “I am no tax collector, but a shepherd of the Lord’s flock.” This became an excuse for the Shah to declare open season on Christians, and especially clergy. Mar Shim’un was arrested and brought before the court, and given a devious offer: if he alone were to deny Christ and worship the sun, all other Christians would be saved. This caused an uproar in the Christian community, which refused the offer of salvation through apostasy. In the end, King Shapur II, whom Shim’un had known since childhood, had the bishop taken out of the city of Susa with much of his clergy. Mar Shim’un had to watch as five of his brother bishops and one hundred of his priests were beheaded before him. Last of all, he was killed as well. He was the first of many Patriarch-Martyrs of the Church of the East.