Martyr Theodosia the Virgin (+307–308)

The holy Martyr Theodosia the Virgin met a martyr’s end in 307. On 29 May the translation of her holy relics to Constantinople, and later to Venice, is celebrated.

Once, during a persecution of Christians, the seventeen-year-old Theodosia came to some Christians who had been condemned to death. It was the feast of Holy Pascha, and the Christians were talking of the Kingdom of God. Saint Theodosia asked them to pray for her. The guards seized the girl and brought her to the governor Urban. Urban ordered Theodosia to offer sacrifice to the idols, which she firmly refused. Then the executioners cruelly tortured the blessed virgin. The martyr bore the pain in silence and with a radiant face. Then they tied a stone round her neck and threw her into the sea, but angels brought the bride of Christ out onto the shore unharmed. The enraged executioners threw Theodosia to the beasts, but the beasts only licked the saint’s wounds. At last the martyr of Christ was beheaded.

At night Saint Theodosia appeared to her parents, who had begged their daughter to submit to the pagans, in radiant garments, adorned with a crown and holding a cross in her hand, and said to them: “See of what glory you wished to deprive me!”