Venerable Mothers Marana and Cyra (+c. 450)

The Venerable Marana and Cyra, sisters by blood, lived in the fourth century in the city of Beroea (Asia Minor). When they came of age, they left the family of their rich and distinguished parents and went out of the city. The saints put a wall round a small plot of land, blocked up the entrance with stones and clay, and left only a small opening, through which kind people handed them scant food. So the blessed sisters spent their days under the open sky, subduing their bodies with heavy fetters and patiently enduring hunger too: for three years they ate only once in forty days. The blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, knew the life of the holy sisters well: the sisters respected the rank of hierarch and let only him into their dwelling. The blessed father used to talk with the saints and advised them to take off their fetters, which were so heavy that Cyra could not even straighten up and always walked bent double. So the venerable mothers laboured for forty years. They came out of their seclusion only twice: once they travelled to Jerusalem to venerate the life-giving Tomb of the Saviour. Until they reached the holy places they took no food at all, nor did they eat anything on the way back. They made a second such journey to Isauria, to venerate the tomb of the holy Protomartyr Thecla. They reposed around 450.