Righteous Mordecai

HONEST NOTE ON VENERATION: despite careful searching, no independent fixed feast day for Mordecai was found in the calendars of the Orthodox Church (unlike, for instance, the separately venerated Righteous Esther). He is also not among the forefathers commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers before the Nativity of Christ (that commemoration focuses on Christ's direct ancestors according to the flesh, of whom Mordecai is not one). His veneration appears to be only indirect — through the reading and remembrance of the story of Esther; the date field has been left empty rather than filled with an invented date.

Mordecai is a figure from the Book of Esther, a Benjaminite led into Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar and later living in the Persian capital of Susa (Shushan). He was the cousin and guardian of Esther after the death of her parents; he uncovered a plot against the life of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). When the king's noble Haman plotted to exterminate the entire Jewish people, Mordecai persuaded Esther, who had by then become queen, to intercede with the king for her people. Haman's plan was foiled, he himself was hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai, and Mordecai was raised to the position of second in the kingdom after the king.

These events form the basis of the Jewish festival of Purim. A traditional tomb of Mordecai (shared with Esther) is venerated in Hamadan, Iran.