Thomais of Alexandria

Thomais was born in Alexandria of Christian parents, and was married young — at about fifteen — to the son of a certain man of the city. She was gentle, devout and modest, and lived quietly in her husband's house. Her father-in-law, however, conceived a shameful and unnatural passion for her; and one day, while her husband was away, he came to her and sought to force her to sin with him.

Thomais resisted with all her strength, pleading with him to remember the fear of God, the bond of nature, and the honour of his own son; she declared that she would rather die than defile the marriage-bed and offend against the law of God. Enraged and shamed by her refusal, the old man seized a sword and, in his fury, cut her in two, so that she died at once — a martyr for chastity, about the year 476. Divine justice fell upon the murderer: it is related that he was at that moment struck blind (in another account, seized by a demon) and, arrested and confessing his crime, was put to death.

Her body was taken to the great monastic settlement of Octodecaton near Alexandria. The holy abba Daniel of Sketis, who was there, ordered that she be buried among the fathers in the monks' own cemetery, saying that she was "our sister," who had died for the commandment of God; and when some marvelled that a woman should be laid among the ascetics, her intercession was shown to deliver the monks from the assaults of the flesh. A brother long troubled by carnal temptation was sent by Daniel to pray at her tomb, and was freed; and from that time Thomais has been invoked by monastics and all the faithful against the warfare of unclean thoughts and the passion of fornication.