Holy Martyrs Auctus, Taurion and Thessalonica

Saint Thessalonica was the daughter of a pagan priest. When her lawless father learned that his daughter was a Christian, he beat her mercilessly and then, according to one account, drove her out of the house, and according to another source threw her into prison. Saints Auctus and Taurion tried to take the blessed one’s part and bring her savage father to his senses, but the priest denounced them and had them seized. The saints firmly confessed Christ before the tormentors, for which they were cruelly tortured and at last beheaded. A short time after the martyrs’ blessed end Thessalonica too committed her soul to the Lord in suffering. Her holy body was buried with honour together with the relics of Auctus and Taurion in the Macedonian city of Amphipolis.