St. Mani

, of Iranian origin, was a prophet and a founder of a strain of religion known as Manicheanism
(in Middle Persian Māni and Syriac Mānī, Greek Μάνης, Latin Manes; also Μανιχαίος, Latin Manichaeus, from Syriac ܡܐܢܝ ܚܝܐ Mānī ḥayyā "Living Mani", c. 216–274 AD)
is believed to have been the son of Parthian royalty, born in the year 216 in a village near Ctesiphon, by the Tigris River. As a young boy, Mani might have been taken by his father into a cult called the "Practitioners of Ablutions" – a cult that believed in washing away sins in baptisms.   was a member of the Jewish-Christian sect of the Elcesaites (a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites).  His mother was of Parthian descent (from "the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan"); her name is reported variously, among others Mariam.