The life of Abda, Hormizd and Sunin of Persia
The king, enraged, ordered him to rebuild what he had destroyed, and when Abda would not, he was tortured at length until he died. His death opened a long persecution of Christians across Persia that lasted some thirty years.
Among those who suffered in the years that followed was Hormizd, a nobleman's son who had become a Christian and was stripped of his rank and wealth for it, forced to labor half clothed as a camel driver in the sun. When the king later offered him fine clothing and restored favor if he would return to the old religion, Hormizd tore the garment apart and sent it back, choosing to keep nothing from a king who asked him to deny his God, and for this he too was put to death. A third martyr of this persecution, Sunin, a Persian official of high standing, likewise turned to Christ and gave his life for that confession, though little more of his story has come down to us.
