Apostle of the Seventy Ananias of Damascus

Holy Apostle of the Seventy Ananias was Bishop of Damascus. By God's command he came to Saul (the future Apostle Paul), who had been blinded by a miraculous light, laid his hands on him, and baptized him, after which Saul's sight was restored (Acts 9:10–19). Ananias fearlessly preached Christianity in Damascus and then in Eleutheropolis, where he healed the sick. For refusing to sacrifice to idols by order of the ruler Lucian, he was subjected to cruel torture and then taken outside the city and stoned to death while praying for his killers.