Saint Benjamin was a deacon martyred circa 424 in Persia. He was imprisoned for a year for his Christian faith, and later released with the condition that he abandon preaching or speaking of his religion. His release was obtained by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II through an ambassador. However, Saint Benjamin declared that it was his duty to preach about Christ and that he could not be silent. As a consequence, Benjamin was tortured mercilessly until his death in the year 424, specifically, “sharpened reeds [were] stuck under the nails of his fingers and toes.”
According to his hagiography, when the king was apprised that Saint Benjamin refused to stop preaching, he “… caused reeds to be run in between the nails and the flesh, both of his hands and feet, and to be thrust into other most tender parts, and drawn out again, and this to be frequently repeated with violence. Lastly, a knotty stake was thrust into his bowels, to rend and tear them, in which torment he expired….”
Saint Benjamin was executed during a period of persecution of Christians that lasted forty years and through the reign of two Persian kings: Isdegerd I, who died in 421, and his son and successor, Varanes V. King Varanes carried on the persecution with such great fury that Christians were submitted to the most cruel tortures.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_the_Deacon_and_Martyr
Shea, John Dawson Gilmary. “Saint Benjamin, Deacon, Martyr”. Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1889. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 February 2014
nto his urethra, by this account: Collin (1738), p.57, the stake finally thrust up his anus was studded with sharp nails according to the same source, * Collin, Johann E. (1738). Der Kampff und Sieg der ersten Blut-Zeugen Jesu Christi: durch Glauben und Gedult, nach alphabetischer Ordnung entworffen, und in Kupffern vorgestellet. Frankfurt and Leipzig.
