Florence Jullien offers a welcome contribution to our understanding of Christianity in sixth-century Persia with her text edition and English translation of two Syriac martyrdom narratives: those of Mar Grigor and Mar Yazd-panah. These texts, part of a larger collection of Syriac narratives that recount the experiences of Christian martyrs in Roman Mesopotamia and Sasanian Persia, tell the stories of two high-ranking Persian officials who convert to Christianity and are ultimately killed as a result. Building on her previous work on the texts in French, Jullien now brings these two accounts to readers of English.
In the first story, we hear that Grigor converts to Christianity after experiencing an angelic vision. For his conversion, he is thrown into a dark pit for three years. But Grigor survives and is eventually reinstated to his former position of honor. Later, he is taken captive while leading a unit of soldiers against the Roman Empire. After being brought to the attention of the emperor, the Christian captive Grigor is offered luxurious gifts and an even higher office than the one he had previously held in Persia. And yet he opts to reject the Chalcedonian Christology of the Byzantines and return home. There, he endures further imprisonment, engages in theological debates with Zoroastrian authorities, and is finally executed around 541 or 542 CE. His death is surrounded by miraculous events, with believers collecting healing dust from his burial site.
Inspired by Grigor’s resolve, Yazd-panah, another Persian official, also converts to Christianity. Although the Zoroastrians try to persuade him to renounce his new faith, Yazd-panah holds firm. Following his execution, his remains are interred next to Grigor’s, and their legacy continues to motivate others, including a wealthy convert named ʿAwira.
In her introduction to the texts, Jullien situates the stories of Grigor and Yazd-panah within the broader geopolitical and religious contexts of the Sasanian Empire during the long reign of Khusro I (531–579 CE). These stories help illustrate the complicated position of Persian Christians during Khusro’s reign and the enduring rhetorical and thematic influences of earlier martyrs’ stories on the East Syriac tradition.
