Holy Martyr Bassa and Her Sons Theognis, Agapius and Pistus (+305–311)

The holy Martyr Bassa was the wife of a pagan priest and lived with her sons, Theognis, Agapius and Pistus, in Edessa of Macedonia. She had been brought up in Christian piety and instilled the love of Christ in her sons too. In the time of the Emperor Maximian Galerius (305–311) her husband denounced the blessed Bassa and her children to the governor. In spite of threats those who hoped in the Saviour refused to offer sacrifice to the idols. Then the torture of the sons began before their mother’s eyes: the eldest, Theognis, was hung up and torn with iron hooks. The boy Agapius was flayed from his head to his breast. At last they set upon the youngest, Pistus. Their mother encouraged them and urged them to endure the torments for Christ without complaint. At last the boys were beheaded (according to one tradition the brothers suffered in the Macedonian city of Edessa, according to another account in Larissa in Thessaly). Saint Bassa was shut up in prison and starved, but an angel fed the blessed one with heavenly food. Then many kinds of torment were brought upon her. The executioners tried first to burn the lamb of Christ in fire, then to drown her in water; they also threw her to the beasts to be torn apart, but the mother, protected by the grace of the Holy Spirit, remained unharmed. When the lawless took Bassa into a temple, she shattered the statue of Zeus to pieces. Then the saint was thrown into the sea, but suddenly a boat came sailing up and three radiant youths took the handmaid of Christ on board (the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite thought that these youths were her sons, who had departed this world before Bassa). Eight days later the blessed mother left the boat on the island of Halonnesos, near Cyzicus, in the region of Pontus or in the Sea of Marmara. The local governor demanded that she offer sacrifice to the idols and, when he received a firm refusal in reply, he beat the Lord’s chosen one with rods, and then ordered her to be beheaded.

It is known that around 450 a church dedicated to the holy Martyr Bassa already existed in Chalcedon.