Ennatha, Valentina and Paula
The Holy Virgin-Martyrs Ennatha, Valentina and Paula of Palestine
Martyr · Virgin · d. 308, at Caesarea in Palestine
Commemorated 10 February — Martyrdom at Caesarea in Palestine under Firmilian, 16 July — Kept as Paul, Chionia and Alevtina in Greek usage
Ennatha, Valentina and Paula were three Christian virgins of Palestine martyred at Caesarea in the year 308, during the Great Persecution under Maximin, when the cruel governor Firmilian was putting the Christians of the province to death. Their passion is recorded by the eyewitness Eusebius of Caesarea in his Martyrs of Palestine. Ennatha (or Enniatha), a virgin of Gaza, was scourged and cruelly tormented for confessing Christ; Valentina, a virgin of Caesarea, brought to the altar to sacrifice, kicked it over and overthrew the fire upon it, and for this was tortured savagely; and the two were then burned together in one fire. Paula, a third, was beheaded. They are commemorated on February 10.
The three belong to the last and fiercest phase of the persecution of Diocletian and his successors, which in Palestine reached its height under the governor Firmilian about the years 308–310, described at first hand by Eusebius, then a presbyter of Caesarea and later its bishop and the historian of the Church, in his little book On the Martyrs of Palestine.
Ennatha (the name appears also as Enniatha, Ennafa, Enatha) was a virgin from Gaza. Seized in the persecution and refusing to deny Christ, she was subjected to public scourging and torment; Eusebius relates that she was cruelly flogged and exposed to shame, bearing all with steadfastness.
Valentina was a virgin of Caesarea itself. When she was brought before the altar and commanded to offer sacrifice, she thrust it from her — kicking over the altar and scattering the fire that burned upon it — a bold act of defiance for which she was seized, stretched out, and tortured with peculiar ferocity. Eusebius sets the passion of Valentina and Ennatha together: the two virgins, joined in constancy, were at the last given to the fire and burned together, offering their bodies as a single sacrifice.
Paula (in some texts "Paul") completed the company; she received the sentence of the sword and was beheaded. The three are kept together as the virgin-martyrs of Palestine of this day, their memory preserved by the synaxaristes from the contemporary record of Eusebius.
(These three named virgins of Palestine are to be distinguished from the three anonymous women martyred the same day at Magnesia, who were converted at the passion of Charalampus — a separate company that the synaxarion of February 10 commemorates alongside them.)
Feast and commemoration
Ennatha, Valentina and Paula are commemorated on February 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 23), among the martyrs of the day, in the Greek Menaion and the Slavonic calendars alike (the Slavonic naming them Ennafa of Gaza, Valentina of Caesarea, and Paula). They have no separate office; the synaxarion of the day names them, and the common of women martyrs is sung.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy lambs cry out to thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: We thy virgins run after the fragrance of thy myrrh; for wounded are we by love of thee. Keep us in thy heavenly bridal chamber, O Saviour, together with the wise virgins, who by thy grace do glorify thee.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
The three are depicted as young women in the maiden's tunic and mantle, bearing the martyr's cross, often shown amid or above the flames of their passion; Ennatha and Valentina are figured together in the one fire, and Paula with the sword. No pre-1900 identity-verified image has been secured for this entry.