Yazdegerd I

The acts of the synod of 410, dated to the eleventh year of his reign, praise Yazdegerd for ending the persecution of Christians: he ordered the churches destroyed under earlier kings to be rebuilt and those imprisoned for their faith to be released (Synodicon Orientale p. 254). On hearing the letter of the Roman bishops he ordered his provincial governors to send the bishops to the capital (Synodicon Orientale p. 256), and his officials told the synod that its decisions had his backing (Synodicon Orientale pp. 260–261). Chabot, following Nöldeke, counts the years of his reign from August 399 (Synodicon Orientale p. 254). See the Church of the East Organises at Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

The Greek historians give two pictures of him. Socrates says that Marutha of Maypherkat won his respect, that he allowed churches to be built, and that he never harmed the Christians of his realm; persecution began, on this account, under his son (Socrates, Church History 7.8) (Socrates, Church History 7.18). Theodoret reports that after a bishop named Abdas destroyed a fire temple and refused to rebuild it, Yazdegerd had him executed and ordered the churches destroyed (Theodoret, Church History 5.38).