Virgin Martyr Euphrasia (+303)

The holy Virgin Martyr Euphrasia, a Christian maiden distinguished by her beauty, was the daughter of noble parents of Nicomedia. During the persecution under the Emperor Maximian the head of the city demanded that she offer sacrifice to the idols. When he received a refusal in answer, he first cruelly tortured the confessor of Christ, and then gave her to a soldier to be defiled. The saint fervently besought the Lord to protect her virginity. And God looked with the eye of mercy on His chosen one: Euphrasia offered to find the soldier a herb that could protect him from the enemy’s weapons and from death. “But,” she said, “this herb has power only when it is gathered by a virgin, not by a woman.” The soldier believed her and went into a garden with Euphrasia. The saint tore up the first plants that came to hand, then invited the lawless man to test the herb’s power: she laid the leaves on her neck and asked him to strike it hard with his sword. The soldier did so, and the wise maiden committed her soul to the Lord with relief.