Epicharis of Rome
The Holy Martyr Epicharis of Rome
Martyr · d. c. 300
Commemorated 27 September — Martyrdom at Rome under Diocletian
Epicharis (†c. 300) was a Christian woman of Rome — the synaxarion tradition styles her the wife of a senator — martyred in the reign of Diocletian. Arrested by the prefect Caesarius and confessing Christ with courage, she was hung up and her body raked with iron hooks and beaten; her torturers, the account relates, were struck down by an angel of the Lord at her prayer, and she was finally beheaded. Her commemoration on September 27 stands in the Synaxarion of Constantinople and the received Menaion beside that of the martyr Callistratus and his company.
The notice of Epicharis is brief in all its witnesses. She lived at Rome in the reign of Diocletian (284–305), a woman of rank — the Greek synaxaria call her the wife of a senator (συγκλητικοῦ γυνή) — and a Christian. Seized and brought before the prefect Caesarius, she confessed Christ boldly and was put to torture: she was suspended and her body raked with iron hooks (the OCA's account adds a beating with instruments it renders "tin threshing rakes," a detail of the torture the sources describe variously). Under the torments the martyr prayed, and an angel of the Lord struck down her torturers. She was then beheaded with the sword. The synaxarion honours her end with the distich: "Bold-hearted was Epicharis before the sword, rich in divine grace as her ally."
Feast and commemoration
September 27 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 10), by synaxarion notice in the Synaxarion of Constantinople and the received Greek Menaion, whose sanctoral service belongs to the martyr Callistratus; the OCA carries her Life separately. The commemoration is universal in the Byzantine rite.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy lamb Epicharis, O Jesus, crieth with a great voice: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking thee I contend, and am crucified and buried with thee in thy baptism; I suffer for thy sake, that I may reign with thee, and I die for thee, that I may live in thee. Receive me then as a spotless sacrifice, slain with longing for thee. By her intercessions, as thou art merciful, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Epicharis would be painted as a woman martyr of rank: in the rich dress of a senatorial matron with the cross of martyrdom in her right hand. No pre-modern image identified as this saint has been found on Wikimedia Commons — searches under the Greek and Russian name-forms return only the Neronian Epicharis of secular art — and the saint is listed among the wanted icons.
Disputed questions
- Date. The sources fix only the Diocletianic setting; c. 300 is the conventional date, and the persecution years 303–305 would place the martyrdom at the opening of the fourth century, under which this entry is indexed.
- Identity. The martyr is to be distinguished from the pagan Epicharis of Tacitus — the freedwoman of the Pisonian conspiracy under Nero, famous for her endurance under torture — with whom the name is chiefly associated in secular literature; the two are unrelated.