Virgin Martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia (+304)
The holy Virgin Martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia (+304) were sisters. They lived in the Italian city of Aquileia. Orphaned in childhood, the girls led a pious life and were preparing to become nuns. Their spiritual father, the priest Zeno, learned by divine revelation that he would soon die and that the holy virgins would be tortured. The Great Martyr Anastasia (+304, commemorated 22 December), who was in Aquileia, had the same revelation; she visited the sisters and strengthened them in the faith. Soon the prophecy was fulfilled: the priest Zeno died, and the sisters were seized and brought before the Emperor Diocletian.
Captivated by the sisters’ beauty, Diocletian proposed that the saints deny Christ, promising to choose them the best bridegrooms from his retinue. The holy sisters answered that they had one heavenly Bridegroom, Christ, for whom they were ready to suffer and whom they would exchange for nothing.
Diocletian went to Macedonia and took the holy sisters with him. There they were handed over for trial to Dulcitius, the governor of the city.
Enthralled by the beauty of the holy martyrs, Dulcitius was filled with wicked passion. He promised the sisters their freedom on condition that they yield to his savage passion. The sisters answered that they were ready to die for Jesus Christ. Dulcitius decided to satisfy his desire by force. When the sisters stood up to pray, Dulcitius stole up to the door of the prison, but an invisible power confounded his mind; he rushed outside and for a long time ran about senselessly. Dulcitius thought that the sisters had bewitched him, and decided to pay them back.
At the trial the governor ordered the holy martyrs to be stripped, but their clothes seemed to have grown to their bodies, and the executioners could in no way take them off. Dulcitius lost his mind and came to himself only at home.
Diocletian learned of all this. He was angry with Dulcitius and handed the holy sisters over to Sisinius for trial. He began the interrogation with the youngest, Irene, but could do nothing and threw the holy martyr into prison. Then he tried to bend Saints Chionia and Agape. When he failed here too, in his fury he ordered the saints to be burned. The sisters gave thanks to the Lord for granting them a martyr’s end, and went up onto the pyre praying.
When the fire had gone out, the saints’ bodies were found completely unharmed: not even their clothing had burned. The martyrs’ faces were peaceful and radiant. The next day Sisinius ordered Saint Irene to be brought. He tried to frighten the saint with sharing her sisters’ fate, and then threatened her: if thou dost not deny Christ, I will throw thee into a brothel. The holy martyr answered: “Let my body become a victim of violence; my soul shall not be defiled by denying Christ.”
As Sisinius’s soldiers were leading Saint Irene to the brothel, two radiant horsemen overtook them and said: “Sisinius has ordered you to take the virgin up a high mountain and leave her there, and to go back to him and report that the order has been carried out.” The soldiers carried out the order, but when they reported it to Sisinius he flew into a rage, for he had given no such command. The radiant horsemen were angels of the Lord, who had saved the holy virgin from outrage. The governor went to the mountain with a detachment of soldiers and saw the virgin standing on its summit. For a long time they searched for a way up to the top, but could not find it. One of the soldiers shot an arrow at the virgin martyr. Saint Irene called out to Sisinius: “Thy powerless malice is laughable; I depart undefiled to my Lord Jesus Christ,” and peacefully gave up her soul to the Lord (+304).
