Abaskhiron the Soldier

Presented in Coptic hagiographical accounts as a young soldier from Qallin who, at the time of the Diocletian edict to worship idols, publicly refused to perform idolatrous rites. Arrested by the governor Arianus, he endured imprisonment, torture, and miraculous trials, and was ultimately beheaded for his refusal to renounce the Christian faith. Posthumous traditions record miracles and the preservation of his relics in Egyptian monasteries.

The cited narrative identifies him as one of Governor Arianus's soldiers and notes an episode in which he removed and threw down his soldier's uniform before the governor; the supplied sources do not provide an extended iconographic or physical description beyond his status as a youthful soldier from Qallin.

As recorded in the sources, Abaskhiron's notable acts are moral and miracle-bearing: he courageously refused imperial idol worship and inspired other soldiers to join his confession; he endured varied tortures and imprisonment; he drank a sorcerer's poison after making the sign of the cross and suffered no harm; he was healed of blinding by the intervention of the Archangel Michael; and, after his death, tradition attributes to him the miraculous translation of an entire church, its people, a tree and a well to the village of Biho. The accounts also record the conversion and martyrdom of the sorcerer Alexandros following these events.