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The Virgin-Martyrs of Amisus

The Holy Virgin-Martyrs Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia and Theodosia of Amisus

Martyr · Virgin · d. c. 310 (some sources 286–308), at Amisus in Pontus

Commemorated 20 March — Martyrdom by fire under Maximian

On March 20 the Church commemorates a company of Christian women martyred at Amisus in Pontus (the Black Sea city, modern Samsun) in the last of the pagan persecutions — seven virgins whose names the calendars hand down as Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia and Theodosia (Theodora). In the persecution under the Emperor Maximian, about the year 310, these women openly confessed Christ before the ruler of the province and, refusing to sacrifice to the idols, were subjected to torture and put to death by fire. Honoured together as virgin-martyrs, they are one of the several companies of women whom the age of the persecutions gave to the Church, and on the Slavonic calendar their memory is joined on this day to that of Photini the Samaritan Woman.

The record of these martyrs is that of a synaxarion notice rather than a full passion, and it is given here as the calendars transmit it. They were Christian women of Amisus, a city of Pontus on the southern shore of the Black Sea, in the years when the persecution begun under Diocletian was carried on in the East by his colleague and successor Maximian (and, in the eastern provinces, by Maximinus Daia) — the "Great Persecution" of the opening of the fourth century, the last and fiercest assault of the pagan empire upon the Church. When the edicts required all to sacrifice to the gods, these women would not, but confessed themselves Christians before the governor.

For their confession they were seized and cruelly tortured — the synaxaria tell of the common instruments of that age, the scourges, the hooks, the burning — and, holding firm to the end, were at the last given over to the flames and so completed their martyrdom, about the year 310. The tradition numbers them as seven, and hands down their names as Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, and Theodosia — the last also given as Theodora. As with many such companies the manuscript tradition varies: some lists give only four of the names (Alexandra, Claudia, Juliana, and Theodosia), and the date is set variously in the reign of Maximian (286–305) or a little later (c. 310); the entry gives the fuller roll and the later date as the calendars most commonly present them, without pressing a definitive count.

Feast and commemoration

The Virgin-Martyrs of Amisus are commemorated on March 20 (church date; New Calendar civil March 20, Old Calendar civil April 2), within Great Lent. Their memory is kept in the Greek and Slavonic synaxaria among the day's saints; the OCA names them among the March 20 commemorations as the virgin-martyrs of Maximian's persecution. As the day falls in the fast, their commemoration is observed at the Lenten services where it does not meet a Saturday or Sunday.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Your ewe-lambs, O Jesus, cry out with a great voice: O our Bridegroom, thee we love, and seeking thee we endure the contest; we are crucified and buried together with thee in thy baptism, and we suffer for thy sake, that we may reign with thee; we die for thee, that we may live in thee. Receive us as spotless sacrifices, offered to thee with love. By their prayers, O merciful Saviour, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

The Virgin-Martyrs of Amisus are shown, in the manner of the synaxis of women-martyrs, as a row of young women crowned and robed as martyrs — veiled in the maphorion, each bearing the small cross of witness — and, in narrative icons, standing amid or led into the fire that crowned them. No pre-modern, identity-verified image of this particular company has been secured for storage; the icon is wanting.

Disputed questions

  • The number, names, and date. The company is counted as seven in the fuller lists (Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, Theodosia) and as four in the shorter (Alexandra, Claudia, Juliana, Theodosia "of Amisus"); the year is given as c. 310 or within the reign of Maximian (286–308). The variations are of transmission, not of the fact of a company of women martyred at Amisus.
  • The Slavonic conflation with Photini. On the Slavonic calendar for this day the names of these virgin-martyrs are sometimes listed within the company of Photini the Samaritan Woman — whose own commemoration the Russian Church keeps on March 20 — as though they were her fellow-sufferers at Rome under Nero. The two are in truth distinct: Photini and her sisters and sons are a first-century company martyred at Rome, whose sisters bear the names Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve and Kyriake; the virgin-martyrs of Amisus are a fourth-century company of Pontus. The shared date has drawn them together in the books, but they are not the same martyrs.

Sources

  1. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, March 20 (consulted live) — the virgin-martyrs Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia and Theodora, who confessed Christ and were put to death in the persecution of Maximian.
  2. Greek and Slavonic synaxaria for March 20 / civil April 2 (consulted live at azbyka.ru) — the martyrs of Amisus, given both as the fuller company of seven and as the shorter roll "of Amisus" (Alexandra, Claudia, Juliana, Theodosia), of c. 310.
  3. The entry in this collection for Photini the Samaritan Woman (with whose company these martyrs are conflated on the Slavonic calendar for this day).