An Odd Bi-Ritual Saint - St Athanasius the Persian

Most bi-ritual Saints are well known, Apostles, famous martyrs usually from the West, etc. but St Athanasius the Persian is an outlier.

From the West:

Anastasius, a Persian by birth, embraced the monastic life during the reign of Heraclius. After visiting the Holy Places in Jerusalem, he courageously endured, at Caesarea in Palestine, both imprisonment and scourgings for the faith of Christ. Not long after, the Persians put him to several kinds of torture for the same reason. King Chosroes, at last, ordered him to be beheaded, together with seventy other Christians. His relics were at first carried to Jerusalem to the monastery where he had professed the monastic life. Afterwards they were translated to Rome and were deposited in the monastery near the Salvian Waters.

From the East:

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

On this same 22nd of January the Church honours the memory of the holy Persian monk Anastasius who suffered martyrdom in the year 628. Chosroes, having made himself master of Jerusalem, had carried with him into Persia the wood of the True Cross, which was afterwards recovered by Heraclius. The sight of this Holy Wood excited in the heart of Anastasius, who was then a pagan, the desire of knowing the religion of which it is the trophy. He renounced the Persian superstitions in order to become a Christian and a monk. This, together with the neophyte’s zeal, excited the pagans against him and after enduring frightful tortures, the Soldier of Christ was beheaded. His body was taken to Constantinople, and thence to Rome, where it is still honoured. Two celebrated Churches of Rome, one in the city itself, and the other outside the walls, are dedicated in common to Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius, because these two great martyrs suffered on the same day of the year, though in different centuries. This is the motive of the Church uniting their two Feasts into one. Let us pray to this new champion of the Faith that he intercede for us to the Saviour whose Cross was so dear to him.

From the East:

The Monk Martyr Anastasius the Persian was the son of a Persian sorcerer named Bavi. As a pagan, he had the name Magundates and served in the armies of the Persian emperor Chosroes II, who in 614 ravaged the city of Jerusalem and carried away the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord to Persia.

Great miracles occurred from the Cross of the Lord, and the Persians were astonished. The heart of young Magundates was inflamed with the desire to learn more about this sacred object. Asking everyone about the Holy Cross, the youth learned that upon it the Lord Himself was crucified for the salvation of mankind. He became acquainted with the truths of the Christian Faith in the city of Chalcedon, where the army of Chosroes was for a certain while. He was baptized with the name Anastasius, and then became a monk and spent seven years in one of the Jerusalem monasteries, living an ascetical life.

Reading the Lives of the holy martyrs, Saint Anastasius was inspired with the desire to imitate them. A mysterious dream, which he had on Great and Holy Saturday, the day before the Resurrection of Christ, urged him to do this.

Having fallen asleep after his daily tasks, he beheld a radiant man giving him a golden chalice filled with wine, who said to him, “Take this and drink.” Draining the chalice, he felt an ineffable delight. Saint Anastasius then realized that this vision was his call to martyrdom.

He went secretly from the monastery to Palestinian Caesarea. There he was arrested for being a Christian and was brought to trial. The governor tried in every way to force Saint Anastasius to renounce Christ, threatening him with tortures and death, and promising him earthly honours and blessings. The saint, however, remained unyielding. Then they subjected him to torture: they beat him with rods, they lacerated his knees, they hung him up by the hands and tied a heavy stone to his feet, they exhausted him with confinement, and then wore him down with heavy work in the stone quarry with other prisoners.

Finally, the governor summoned Saint Anastasius and promised him his freedom if he would only say, “I am not a Christian.” The holy martyr replied, “I will never deny my Lord before you or anyone else, neither openly nor even while asleep. No one can compel me to do this while I am in my right mind.” Then by order of the emperor Chozroes, Saint Anastasius was strangled, then beheaded. After the death of Chosroes, the relics of the Monk Martyr Anastasius were transferred to Palestine, to the Anastasius monastery.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your holy martyr Anastasius, O Lord, / through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. / For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through his intercessions, save our souls!