Biography
Acepsimas of Hnaita
About Acepsimas of Hnaita
Acepsimas is remembered as a Christian bishop in Persia who suffered martyrdom during the reign of Shapur II. The Syriaca reference record identifies his region as Adiabene and preserves the name ʿAqebshma alongside Acepsimas. Its summary explicitly describes the account as hagiography.
In his Ecclesiastical History, Sozomen recounts Acepsimas’s arrest with several clergy. The authorities released the others after confiscating their property. A priest named James voluntarily joined the bishop in prison and cared for his wounds. Sozomen says Acepsimas refused to worship the sun, endured repeated punishment and died under torture. He adds that Armenian hostages secretly recovered and buried the body. This is a Christian historian’s account of the martyrdom, rather than an independently preserved court record.
The fuller received Passion links him with the priest Joseph and the deacon Aithala and describes three years of imprisonment. The Norwegian Catholic biography dates his death to 10 October 376. The Syriaca record instead lists 379. These dates need reconciliation before an exact death date can be assigned.
The Orthodox Church in America describes beheading. The Norwegian account and Sozomen describe his death during torture. The shared memory of an elderly bishop remaining Christian under pressure is clearer than these incompatible details.
The Orthodox Church in America commemorates Acepsimas, Joseph and Aeithalas together on 3 November. The Norwegian biography records an older Roman commemoration on 22 April and says that it is absent from the 2004 Roman Martyrology. These observances are separate from the unresolved chronology of his death.
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