Martyrs Akepsimos the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Haiphal the Deacon of Persia

Akepsimos, bishop of Naesson in Persia, was about eighty when King Shapur's persecution reached him. His Life tells that a child had foretold his martyrdom. Arrested with the priest Joseph, aged seventy, and the deacon Haiphal, he was brought to the chief of the Magi, refused to worship the sun and fire, and was beaten and jailed.

After three years the prisoners were tried again before the king's chief magus, Ardasabor. Akepsimos was beaten with straps and beheaded; his body was thrown into the street, and Christians buried it after three days. Joseph, after further beatings, was stoned to death, and Haiphal was also stoned. Local monks took his body by night and buried it.