Great Martyr Euphemia the All-praised (+304)

The holy Great Martyr Euphemia the All-praised was the daughter of devout Christians, the senator Philophron and Theodosia. She suffered for Christ in 304 in the city of Chalcedon on the shore of the Bosporus.

Priscus, the governor of Chalcedon, issued an order that the inhabitants of the whole city and its surroundings should come to worship the idol of Ares, and threatened the disobedient with torture and death. Forty-nine Christians who shunned idol-worship gathered in one house and offered the bloodless sacrifice to the Lord. “In beauty of body and comeliness of virtues, in the flower of her age and the nobility of her family, she shone among them like the bright stars”: the virgin Euphemia. Soon the hiding place of the Orthodox became known. They were seized and brought to Priscus. The head of the city first tried to win the confessors over with flattery, then for nineteen days tormented them with terrible tortures, but achieved nothing. Then, at a loss, he sent the martyrs to the judgement of the Emperor Diocletian (284–305), but kept the youngest of them, Euphemia, with him, hoping that once she was alone he could easily subdue her.

The virgin, torn from the company, fervently begged the Lord to strengthen her in the struggle that lay ahead.

The executioners bound Christ’s lamb to a wheel fitted with swords. As it turned, the martyr’s body was cut and pieces of flesh fell all around. The blessed one prayed aloud. And behold, the wheel suddenly stopped of itself, and the godless could not by any means set it moving. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, freed Euphemia and healed her of her wounds. The joyful saint gave thanks to the Lord.

The miracle that had taken place was not enough to bring the governor to his senses, and he ordered the soldiers Victor and Sosthenes to throw the martyr into a heated furnace; but they saw angels looking upon them sternly and threateningly, refused to carry out the command, believed, and openly confessed Euphemia’s God. The confessors were thrown to the beasts to be torn apart. Standing face to face with death, Victor and Sosthenes fervently besought the all-merciful Lord to grant them the Kingdom of Heaven. Their heartfelt prayer was heard, and the souls of the penitents passed peacefully into eternity (+c. 304). The beasts did not even touch their bodies.

Other soldiers threw Saint Euphemia into the furnace, but she came out alive. By God’s help she escaped many more torments unharmed, which the governor put down to the martyr’s sorcery. At last they resolved to throw the Lord’s chosen one to the beasts in the circus to be torn apart. Before the sentence was carried out the saint fervently begged the Lord to take her out of this world. Four lions and three bears were let loose on her, but the wild beasts approached the blessed one gently and reverently, and “kissed her human footprints”. Only one bear bit her on the foot, leaving a small wound, and Euphemia gave up her spirit. A voice sounded from on high: “Run up to the Giver of crowns, thou contender in the good contest; having now finished thy course, thou hast received the reward of thy labours.” Suddenly the earth shook terribly. The frightened guards and onlookers scattered, and her parents took up the holy body of the victorious martyr and buried it with honour near Chalcedon.

Afterwards a splendid church was built over the tomb of the Great Martyr Euphemia. In this church in 451 the sessions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council were held, during which the Lord’s holy saint wonderfully confirmed the truth of the Orthodox faith and put an end to the raging of the Monophysites (this miracle is told in detail in the reading for 11 July).

After the Persians took Chalcedon, the incorrupt relics of Saint Euphemia the All-praised were translated to Constantinople in 620. When iconoclasm held sway, the reliquary with this holy treasure was thrown into the sea. Devout sailors took it up into their boat. Later the holy relics came to the island of Lemnos, and in 796 they were returned to Constantinople again.