A chorbishop martyred in Persia in 341 during Shapur II’s persecution of Christians in the Sassanid Persian Empire.

Saint Maryahb was a chorbishop, an assistant or rural bishop of the ancient Syriac Church, martyred in Persia, in present-day Iraq, in the year 341, during the persecution of Christians launched by the Sassanid king Shapur II. Beyond his ecclesiastical rank and the approximate place and date of his death, little further biographical detail survives.

Quick Facts

• Died: 341, Persia, Iraq
• Venerated as: Chorbishop and martyr

Who Was Saint Maryahb?

Maryahb held the office of chorbishop, a rank of assistant or rural bishop found in the ancient Syriac and Persian Church, serving Christian communities outside the main episcopal cities within the Sassanid Persian Empire, at the outset of the severe persecution launched by King Shapur II in 339.

Historical Setting

Shapur II’s persecution, which targeted the Christian Church of the Persian Empire for roughly four decades beginning in 339, struck especially hard at clergy, whose visible leadership made them primary targets for a regime suspicious that Persian Christians held divided loyalty toward the rival Roman Empire, with which Christianity was closely associated.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Maryahb

Maryahb is remembered as one of the many Persian clergy, from bishops down to chorbishops like himself, who were executed in the opening years of Shapur’s persecution, a campaign whose scale rivaled or exceeded the earlier Roman persecutions but which remains far less documented in Western sources.

Canonization and Feast Day

No formal beatification or canonization process is recorded for Saint Maryahb. His veneration rests on ancient local cult within the Syriac Christian tradition, received through the Church’s liturgical memory of the Persian martyrs.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

His office as a rural, assistant bishop rather than a bishop of a major city is a reminder that persecution under Shapur II fell on every rank of clergy, not only the most prominent, and that faithful service in a humbler ecclesiastical role carried no less risk or no less honor.

A Prayer to Saint Maryahb

Saint Maryahb, chorbishop and martyr of the Persian Church, intercede for the ancient Syriac Christian communities of the Middle East who continue to suffer for their faith today. Give their pastors your same steadfast courage. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints