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Holy Great Martyr Euphemia     9/29/2013

Born in Chalcedon. Her father was the senator Philophronos, and mother Theodosia, both of them devout Christians. Euphemia was a beautiful virgin both in body and mind. When the Proconsul Priscus established a feast for offering sacrifices to Arius in Chalcedon, forty-nine Christians fled and hid in order to avoid this blasphemous offering. Yet they were discovered and brought before Priscus. Among them was Saint Euphemia. When the arrogant Pricsus asked them why they would not obey the Emperor's command, they answered:" We ought to obey both the Emperor's and your command, if it is not against God, the Maker of heaven and earth; and if it is against God, not only we should not obey it, but moreover, we must oppose it." Then Priscus put them under various tortures, each day, over the course of nineteen days. On the twentieth day he chose Euphemia from among them and started flattering her for her beauty in order to persuade her to venerate the idols. Still, as all the flattery was to no avail, he gave a command the virgin to be put under tortures. She was at first put on a wheel, but an angel of God appeared and broke the wheel. Then she was thrown into red-hot oven, yet with God's help she survived. When they saw this, two of the soldiers, Victor and Sostenes, believed in Christ, for which they were thrown to wild animals and thus gloriously ended their lives. Then Euphemia was thrown into a pit filled with water and poisonous dirt, but she made the sign of the cross on the water before she got in, and remained unharmed. At last, when she was thrown to wild animals, she prayed to God with gratitude and committed her spirit. Her parents honourably buried her body. She suffered in 304 and inhabited the eternal bliss. She is also commemorated on July 11.