Acacius of Amida

Acacius of Amida was a Christian bishop of Amida in Roman Mesopotamia, the city corresponding to modern Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey, in the early fifth century. His episcopate fell during the reign of the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II. Almost nothing is recorded about his birth, family, education, or the precise date at which he became bishop; later tradition sometimes assigns his tenure approximately to the years 400–425, but those dates are conventional rather than independently documented. The only substantial contemporary notice of him is found in the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus, composed in Constantinople in the 430s or 440s. Socrates presents Acacius as bishop of a frontier see and as the author of a single celebrated act of charity toward Persian prisoners of war.

According to Socrates, after hostilities between the Roman Empire and Sassanid Persia a large number of Persian captives—given as seven thousand—were held in Roman territory and were perishing from hunger. Acacius assembled his clergy and argued that God had no need of gold and silver vessels, since God neither eats nor drinks nor lacks anything. He therefore had the church plate melted down and sold, using the proceeds to ransom the captives from the soldiers who held them, to feed them, and to equip them for the journey home. The freed prisoners were then sent back to the Persian king. Socrates presents the episode as an instance of Christian philanthropy toward enemies and states that the Persian monarch was astonished that the Romans might overcome their foes by kindness as well as by arms.

The event is generally placed in the aftermath of the Roman–Persian war of 421–422, fought between Theodosius II and the Sassanid king Bahram V. Amida lay on a contested Mesopotamian frontier, so the bishop’s action had both pastoral and diplomatic overtones. Later hagiographical writers sometimes amplified the story, suggesting that the king’s admiration led to better treatment of Christians in Persia, but such elaborations go beyond what Socrates himself asserts. No other independent fifth-century source adds biographical detail. Acacius does not appear in the surviving record as a participant in the major theological controversies of the period, such as the Nestorian dispute.

He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 9 April, recalling that he sold the sacred vessels of the church in order to ransom captives. He is likewise remembered in some Eastern Christian traditions. There is no evidence that he held patriarchal rank or the Roman see; he was a diocesan bishop of a Mesopotamian city. No reliable account of his death, burial, or any family survives. His historical reputation rests almost entirely on the single deed of charity preserved by Socrates, which became a frequently cited example of the legitimate alienation of church treasure for the relief of the suffering.