Herod Agrippa I
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Acts 12:1 and elsewhere), son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great. To please the Jews he darkened his reign by persecuting Christians; thus, for example, he slew with the sword the holy apostle James, son of Zebedee, and intended to do the same to the apostle Peter, but Providence saved him (Acts 12:1-10). Soon afterward the persecutor himself ended his life. At Caesarea, during public games in honor of the emperor, he was struck by a sudden internal illness that lasted only four days; on the fifth day he died in his palace, eaten by worms (Acts 12:20-23).