Piama
The Holy Virgin Piama
Virgin · Righteous · b. unknown, in Egypt — d. c. late 4th century
Commemorated 18 February
Piama (Piamun) was an Egyptian virgin of the fourth century, known from the Lausiac History of Palladius. She lived quietly with her widowed mother in a Nile village, spinning flax and eating only in the evening, and was granted the gift of foresight and prophecy. When the men of a neighbouring village came in arms to attack her own over the sharing of the Nile flood-waters, she foresaw it, warned her neighbours in vain, and then spent the night in prayer; the attackers were held fast, unable to move, until they sent to beg her village for peace and she prayed for their release. She reposed in peace. Her memory is kept on February 18.
Piama is one of the holy women whom Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, gathered into his Lausiac History (c. 419–420), the great early record of the monks and ascetics of Egypt. She lived in a village of the Nile country, sharing a house with her mother, who was a widow; the two lived by the labour of their hands, spinning flax. Piama gave herself to a hidden ascetic life in the world — never going out, eating only once a day, in the evening, and passing her time in prayer — and God granted her the gift of prophecy, so that things to come were shown to her.
The one deed the tradition remembers set that gift in action. Egypt's life depended on the inundation of the Nile, and the sharing of its waters among the villages was a frequent cause of bitter quarrel. One year the men of a village upstream, aggrieved over the flood, came down by boat and on foot to attack Piama's village — to break its dykes, or to fall on its people. Piama, to whom their coming had been revealed, sent to warn the elders of her own village and to urge them to go out and make peace; but they, from fear, did not heed her. Then she gave herself to prayer through the night. And when the armed men drew near, they were struck motionless — rooted where they stood, unable to advance a step — until, understanding that a holy power withstood them, they sent to Piama's village confessing their fault and begging for peace. Only when the peace was made did Piama pray for their release, and they were let go. So by her prayer alone, without a blow, she saved her village. Having lived out her days in this hidden holiness, she reposed in peace, late in the fourth century.
Feast and commemoration
Piama is commemorated on February 18 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 3) in the Greek synaxaria, which name her among the holy women. Hers is a minor commemoration, kept on the day led by Leo the Great of Rome; the Lausiac account of Palladius is the whole of what is transmitted of her.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O mother, was the divine image surely preserved; for thou didst take up the cross and follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O righteous Piama, rejoice together with the Angels.
Original translation from the Greek
Kontakion — Tone 2
A hidden virgin of the Nile land, spinning flax by day and keeping vigil by night, thou wast granted the sight of things to come, and by thy prayer alone thou didst hold back the armed and save thy people; wherefore we honour thee, O righteous Piama.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Piama would be depicted as a holy virgin-ascetic of Egypt — modestly veiled, in the plain dress of a laywoman rather than the monastic habit, a cross in her hand or her hands raised in prayer. No traditional icon-type is fixed for her, and no storable pre-modern image has been identified; the entry is listed among those wanting an icon.