St. James Intercisus

St. James Intercisus was a Persian nobleman and a favored courtier of King Yazdegerd I of Persia in the early fifth century. When a persecution of Christians arose, James, fearing to lose the king's favor and his high position, weakly renounced his faith and conformed to the pagan worship of the court, a fall that grieved his devout mother and wife, who at length wrote to him refusing his company until he should return to Christ.

Stung to repentance, James openly professed himself a Christian before the new king, Bahram V, and, refusing every inducement to apostatize again, was condemned to a peculiarly savage death: his body was to be cut apart joint by joint, from which he received the surname Intercisus, "the one cut to pieces." Enduring this prolonged martyrdom with serene courage and prayer, he died around the year 421 and has been venerated ever since in both the Eastern and Western Churches, his memory kept on 27 November.