St. Abraham Kidunaia

St. Abraham Kidunaia was a hermit of the region of Edessa in Mesopotamia in the fourth century, whose life was recorded by his contemporary and admirer St. Ephrem the Syrian. Born to wealth, he fled on his wedding day to embrace a life of solitude and prayer, walling himself into a small cell and giving himself wholly to penance and contemplation, subsisting on bread and water.

Drawn from his solitude by obedience, he was sent as a missionary priest to the pagan village of Beth-Kiduna, where for years he endured insults and even violence with unwearied patience, until by his gentleness and perseverance he converted the whole community to Christ, after which he returned to his hermitage. He is remembered too for his tender charity toward his niece Mary, whom, when she had fallen into a life of sin, he sought out in disguise and led back with fatherly love to repentance and holiness. Revered as a model of penance and pastoral zeal, he died around the year 366, and his memory is kept on 16 March.