By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Eudokia was from Heliopolis of the province of Lebanon in Phoenicia, during the reign of Trajan. At first she lived a dissolute life, attracting many lovers by her beauty and amassing great wealth. Later, however, she came to Christ when she heard a certain monk named Germanos, who preached words of piety and repentance.
She was then baptized by Bishop Theodotos, having been persuaded through divine revelations. For it seemed to her that she had ascended into heaven, as though she had gone out of herself and was being guided by an angel, and that the angels rejoiced over her return; while at the same time a certain dark and terrifying figure roared and cried out that he was being wronged if she were taken away from him.
Eudokia therefore distributed her wealth, gave it to the poor, and entered a monastery. There she lived the ascetic life in a manner pleasing to God, until her former lovers denounced her and brought her before Aurelian, who had then ascended the imperial throne. But when she worked a miracle and raised to life the emperor’s son who had died, she also led the emperor himself to faith in Christ.
After several years she was tried by Diogenes, governor of Heliopolis; yet, having again performed miracles, she was released. Finally, Vincent, who succeeded Diogenes, issued an order, and she was beheaded.
Saint Eudokia constitutes a model and symbol of the power of repentance, like other great female saints of our Church, such as Saint Mary of Egypt, for example. One might say that just as our Church presents Saint Mary toward the end of Great Lent in order to encourage the spiritually negligent to repent — even at the last moment (for the Lord has said that He accepts the worker of the last hour as He does the worker of the first, provided there is no deceitful postponement of repentance) — so now, already at the beginning of Lent, it gives a powerful impulse toward repentance through the commemoration of this particular Saint.
For she too, like the sinful woman of the Gospel whom the Lord forgave because of her repentance, like Saint Mary of Egypt as we have said — though her life had been immersed in debauchery — as soon as she heard a word of faith and repentance, believed and changed her manner of life so completely that she became a nun, worked miracles, and even offered her very life for the sake of her Lord.
Indeed, the hymnographer John the Monk, in the Doxastikon of the Aposticha at Vespers of her Service, following in the footsteps of the poetic inspiration of the Holy Hymnographer Kassiani — even employing the same expressions — brings before us the greatness of her heartfelt contrition:
“Having abandoned the pleasant and varied delights of life, the venerable martyr took up the Cross upon her shoulders and came to be united to You in marriage, O Christ. And with mournful tears she cried aloud: Reject me not, the harlot, O You who cleanse the prodigals. Do not despise the tears I shed for my dreadful sins, but receive me as You received that harlot who offered You myrrh, that I too may hear: Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
The Hymnographer truly moves us to compunction by describing the inner struggle of Saint Eudokia and elevates us into the spiritual atmosphere of Holy Week, when on the evening of Great Tuesday, borne upon the wings of Saint Kassiani’s poetry, we ourselves become participants in the contrition of that Gospel woman who washed the Lord’s feet with the tears of her love. For this we are grateful to John the Monk, the holy hymnographer.
The hymns of our Church also emphasize other aspects of the sanctified life of the Venerable Martyr. First, it is worth noting how the Saint was able to overcome her pathological attachment to sinful passions. We are told that only the power of Christ’s love gave her this strength. In other words, no one can overcome his passions and the attraction exercised upon them by the sinful world unless there acts within him the greatest power of freedom in the world — the power and love of Christ.
“You preferred, O Eudokia, the modest Bridegroom Christ instead of the love of soul-corrupting lovers, and you entrusted yourself to His incorruptible love.” (Ode 6)
Second, the Hymnographer compares the Saint — because of her Samaritan origin — with the Samaritan woman of the Gospel of Saint John, later the Holy Great Martyr Photini, saying in effect:
“The Samaritan Eudokia offered You not water, O Savior, as did the woman at Jacob’s well, but blood flowing from her neck when her holy head was cut off for Your sake.” (Kontakion verses)
Indeed, there is no greater gift to Christ than the offering of our very selves. In reality this offering is a return-gift, since He first offered us His own Blood as a gift. When He has given us everything, we cannot respond on a lesser scale. Yet we know this: our own offering is accomplished again by His grace and is understood as participation in His own sacrifice.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
