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Holy Martyrs Pistis, Elpis, Agape and their mother Sophia 9/30/2013
They lived and suffered in Rome, at the time of Emperor Hadrian. The wise Sophia, as characterized by the name she bore (sophia - wisdom), became widowed, and as a devout Christian she fortified herself and her daughters in the faith of Christ. At the time when the torturing hand of Hadrian came over the virtuous home of Sophia, Pistis was twelve years of age, Elpis ten, and Agape was nine. Brought before the Emperor, all four of them holding their hands humbly, yet confidently confessed their faith in Christ and refused to offer sacrifices to Artemis. Before they suffered their mother encouraged her daughters, counselling them to endure till the end. "Your heavenly Bridegroom Jesus Christ is eternal health, indescribable beauty and life eternal. And even though your bodies are killed in tortures, He will adorn you in incorruptibility and the wounds of your bodies will shine as stars on the sky." Their tormentor put them all under brutal tortures, one by one: the first was Pistis, then Elpis and Agape the last. They were beaten up, cut, cast into a raging furnace and eventually beheaded, one by one. Sophia took the dead bodies of her daughters, and carried them out of the town, where she honourably buried them. She remained at their tomb for three days and nights praying to God and thus she committed her spirit to Him, hasting to the heavenly dwellings, where the souls of her blessed daughters were waiting for her.
