These Christian monks suffered in India under King Abenner. Inflamed with anger against the elder Barlaam for having baptised his son Joasaph, King Abenner sent men in pursuit of Barlaam. The pursuers did not catch him, but seized seventeen other monks and brought them before the king. The king condemned them to death, and their eyes were first put out, their tongues cut out and their arms and legs broken before they were beheaded with the sword. But the Christian faith in the Indian kingdom was only the more strengthened by the blood of these glorious soldiers of Christ the Lord. 
