Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael of Persia

Manuel, Sabel and Ismael were brothers from Persia, sons of a pagan father and a Christian mother, and officers of the Persian king. In 362, according to their Life, he sent them to the Roman emperor Julian to make peace. At the emperor's camp in Bithynia they stood apart from a pagan festival and told him they were Christians. Julian had them tortured and then beheaded, on 17 June. His servants meant to burn the bodies, but the Life tells that the ground opened and swallowed them, and gave them back two days later. The Christians of the place buried them there.