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Holy Martyr Anastasia the Roman 11/11/2013
She was born in Rome of noble parents who left her an orphan when she was three years of age. She was taken to be raised in a women’s monastery near Rome, directed by the abbess called Sophia, a nun on advanced degree of spiritual perfection. Having spent seventeen years in the monastery, Anastasia became known among the Christians as a great ascetic, and among the pagans as a great beauty. The pagan Governor Probus heard about her and sent his soldiers to bring her to him. Her abbess counselled her for two hours how to preserve her faith, resist the flattering deceits and to persevere the tortures to the end. Anastasia told her:” My heart is ready for martyrdom for Christ, my soul is prepared to die for the sweetest Jesus“. Brought before the Governor, Anastasia publicly confessed her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Governor attempted to persuade her to denounce her faith first with flatteries, and then with threats, the holy Martyr told him:” I am ready to die for God not once but a hundred times if possible.” When they stripped her clothes off to make mockery of her, she turned to the soldiers with the words:” You may beat me, cut me to pieces and tear me apart and so cover with wounds my body and hide my shame behind blood!” So they beat her, cut and tore her body. Twice she felt an immense thirst and asked for water. A Christian called Cyril gave her water to drink, for which the Martyr blessed him and the pagans put him to death. They tore off her breasts and cut out her tongue. An angel of God appeared to her and encouraged her. At last she was killed by the sword out of the city walls. The blessed abbess Sophia found her body and buried it with great devotion. She was crowned with martyr’s wreath in the reign of the Emperor Decius.
