Holy Year Icon

Artist: R. Almenario

This sacred image showing the Holy Martyrs of Najran was specially painted for the Shrine of the Holy Martyrs erected for their relics in St. Joseph Cathedral in Abu Dhabi.

St. Arethas is depicted standing in the center of a group of martyrs, holding a palm and a Cross, the traditional symbols of martyrdom. Faithfulness to Christ Crucified and veneration of the Cross as a sign of Christian identity is also prominent in the hagiography of the martyrs.  

Above the group, angels bring crowns of victors to honour the martyrs who have remained faithful until the point of death (cf. Rev 2:10). The Syriac writers frequently refer to the martyrs as having been "crowned" when speaking of their deaths. 

On either side of St. Arethas are the figures of other martyrs, both female and male. The diverse numbers includes persons of all states of life (clergy, consecrated, lay), ages and ethnic backgrounds, as reported by surviving accounts. The martyrs have their hands tied behind their backs, as indicated in some sources, awaiting decapitation. Behind the saints is shown another incident reported by several sources - the burning of a church with Christians (both living and departed) inside. 

To the right of the image, we see the image of one of the "daughters of the covenant" (a group of consecrated women with a specific role in the ancient Syriac Churches), dragged by the hair and beheaded (cf. Greek Life of St. Arethas). To the right of the image,  we see an eight-year old non-Najranite boy searching for his parents who was captured and killed (cf. Letter of Simeon Beth Arsham).

At the bottom of the image, a selection of scenes from the sources are depicted. On the left is the reported death of some Christians in a fiery trench/pit/wadi (an incident also alluded to in the Quran and isalmic sources). One can also see a scene from the Greek Life of St. Arethas: a 5 year old boy, having professed faith in Christ and having refused the offer of adoption by the king chooses to be martyred with his mother by jumping into the fire. 

The center shows the body of Mahya, the unconventional servant of Arethas, whose body was thrown in a wadi after she was was killed by being dragged by donkeys and then shot with arrows/stones while suspended from a tree. Unlike the sources however, she is not shown disrobed. 

On the right is shown the famous martyrdom, also reported in many sources, of a wealthy and influential Najrani woman, Ruhm (Ruhayma) along with her daughters(or in some accounts, her granddaughters, or daughter and granddaughter). The chalice of blood at her feet alludes to the gruesome account that the blood of her children was poured into her mouth before she was martyred, as well as to the the fact that martyrdom is a sharing by the disciple in the chalice of suffering first drunk by the Lord (cf. Mark 10:39).