Martyrs Dadas Gabdelas, and Kazdoa of Persia

Dadas, Gabdelas, and Kazdoa were martyrs of the Church in Persia who suffered for their confession of Christ in the fourth century, during the persecution under the Persian emperor Shapur (called Sapor in the sources). They are commemorated together on September 29. Dadas was a high official at the Persian court, while Gabdelas and Kazdoa were children of the emperor himself, Kazdoa being the sister of Gabdelas.

Dadas held a prominent position in the Persian administration, and according to the synaxarion the emperor, not knowing he was a Christian, appointed him governor of one of the Persian districts. When his faith was discovered he was stripped of his honors and condemned to death. The accounts agree that Dadas openly confessed Christ under interrogation and that his steadfastness under torture was accompanied by miraculous signs that bore directly on the conversion of the emperor's own son.

The witness of these signs proved decisive within the royal household. Moved by what he saw, Gabdelas believed in Christ and confessed his faith publicly, and his sister Kazdoa likewise came to faith. The emperor showed no mercy even to his own children, and all three were put to death. The Orthodox tradition remembers them as a single company of martyrs, and the Prologue of Ohrid records that Gargal, a chief pagan priest, suffered together with them.