Leonidas of Corinth and Companions
The Holy Martyrs Leonidas and those with him at Corinth
Martyr · d. c. 250
Commemorated 16 April — Martyrdom by drowning in the sea at Corinth
Leonidas and a company of Christian women with him — Chariessa, Nike, Galina, Kallis, Nunechia, Basilissa and Theodora — were martyred at Corinth in the mid-third century (under Decius, or, by another account, in the early fourth under the tetrarchy). After torture they were bound and cast into the sea, and received together the crown of martyrdom. They are honoured among the martyrs of Greece on April 16.
Leonidas was a Christian of the region of Corinth (some notices make him a bishop or a leader of the community, others a layman), and with him suffered a band of Christian women whose names the synaxaria preserve — Chariessa, Nike, Galina, Kallis, Nunechia, Basilissa and Theodora. In the persecution — the sources give either the reign of Decius (c. 250) or the Great Persecution under Diocletian's colleagues — they were seized as Christians and brought before the governor.
Refusing to sacrifice, they were subjected to torments; the account tells that they sang and gave thanks under their sufferings, comforting one another. At the last they were bound and thrown into the sea off Corinth — some notices say with stones about their necks — and so were drowned for Christ, together completing their martyrdom. The Church of Greece keeps them among its local martyrs, and their memory is joined on this day to that of the three sisters of Thessalonica.
Feast and commemoration
April 16 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 29). Leonidas and his companions are honoured among the martyrs of Corinth and of Greece.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)
Thy martyrs Leonidas and those with him, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Leonidas and the women are painted as a company of martyrs holding the cross; the scene of their drowning in the sea is their proper subject. No pre-1900 icon of them has been identified for this collection.