Sovereign Imperial and Royal House of Gharios and Ghassan

The martyr Gurias was an ascetic at Edessa, and nothing is known of his life before his arrest during
the persecutions of Diocletian. He and his friend, Samonas, were, according to St. Jacob of Serugh,
old men at the time of their martyrdom. The pair are said to have endured three days of torture,
including having been hung upside down, before Musonius, the procurator of Antioch, ordered
them beheaded in 305AD. The fellow ascetics were buried together. Deacon Habib, a martyr under
Licinius, is said to have been buried in their tomb and is honored with them.

St. Gurias’ day is celebrated on November 28th (the 15th, old style) the Church commemorates the
holy martyrs and confessors Gurias, Samonas and Abibus (the differemce in the name is merely the
translation between the Greek used in the orthodox church and latin in the Catholic church). The
saint gave the name to the Gharios / Guerios Family.

Important references:

Diocletian: Roman Emperor, noted for his fierce persecution of the Christians. The reign of
Diocletian (284-305) marked an era both in the military and political history of the empire.
Diocletian's name is associated with the last and most terrible of all the ten persecutions of the
early Church

Edessa: The native name was Osroe, it became Ourhoï in Syriac, Ourhaï in Armenian, Er Roha in
Arabic, commonly Orfa or Sanli Urfa, its present name. (Due to similarity of names, folk mythology in
Islam connects Edessa with an ancient city of Sumer, located on a former channel of the Euphrates
River; Ur as the abode of Abraham (The first of the Old Testament patriarchs and the father of
Isaac).