Icon Saint Athena

Feast of 1 September

Saint Athena was one of the forty virgins and nuns who were condemned to death along with their teacher Amun, because of their Christian faith. Saint Athena, together with her teacher and the other novices, confessed their faith in God, and as a result, Licinius ordered their deaths.

These holy women lived during the time of King Licinius in Hadrianople of Thrace. The ruler of the region, Bavdus (circa 305 AD), arrested them as Christians and urged them to worship idols.

Kelsina, one of them and the first of the city, after her courageous confession of her faith, gathered them all to her house together with their teacher, the deacon Saint Amun, to be strengthened for martyrdom.

Amun took the paper with their names on it and read them aloud one by one. Then he said: “Fight for Christ through martyrdom, for so shall Christ the Bondsman also sit at the gate of the kingdom of heaven, and shall call you one by one by name, to give you the crown of eternal life.”

When the ruler questioned them again, they all firmly confessed their faith. By their prayer they crushed the idols, and the priest of the idols was lifted up in the air, until, tormented by fiery angels, he fell dead to the earth.

Then the staff commanded that Saint Amun be hanged, his ribs scraped, his wounds burned with lighted candles, and a bronze helmet put on his head.

Because the Saint was preserved unharmed from martyrdom, he was taken with his disciples from Veroei (today’s Stara Zagora in Bulgaria) to Heraclea, to King Licinius. On the way the Lord appeared and encouraged them. On arriving in the city they went to the place where the sacred relics of the holy martyr Glyceria had been deposited (see 13 May).

While they were spending the night there praying, the Saint appeared to them, saying: “Welcome, holy servants of God! I have long awaited your glorious company in Christ, so that we may all dance crowned together with the holy angels in the kingdom of Christ, whom we have confessed to our blood.”

In Heraclea they threw them to the beasts. The holy women with their teacher prayed standing with their hands raised, and the beasts were taken by sleep and did not touch them. While the soldiers were lighting a fire to throw them in, they prophesied to the impious Licinius the victory of Constantine the Great, the victory of Christianity and the abolition of idolatry.

Then they were sealed with the sign of the cross and ten of them jumped jubilantly into the flames, praising God, who set the fire. So they were finished in peace at the stake, and eight were beheaded with their teacher Amun. Of the rest, the executioners slaughtered some and put red-hot irons in the mouths of others.

Their names have survived in their ancient Martyrion (Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca 2280-2281) and are: Laurentia the Deacon, Kelsina, Theoktisti (the Theocleia), Dorothea, Euthyriana, Thecla, Aristaineti, Philadelfi, Maria, Veronica, Eulalia (the Euthymia), Labrotati, Euphemia, Theodora, Theodotus, Theodosia, Tethesia, Aquilina, Theodoulis, Applodora, Labadia, Procopia, Procopia, Pavla, Juliana, Juliana, Abliani, Persis, Polynices, Mavra, Gregoria, Lady (Kyriane), Vassa, Kallini, Barbara, Kiriaki, Agathonice, Agathonice, Iusta, Irene, Matrona (Agathonice), Timothea, Tatiana, Anna (Anthousa).

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