By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. These holy women were sisters and came from Bithynia. From a young age they loved the Lord Jesus, whom they continually had as the delight of their souls. Thus, their sole concern was how to adorn themselves with the virtues. Desiring greater asceticism and dedication to God, they left their homeland and withdrew to a hill near the hot baths of Pythia. Through their continual prayer and asceticism in Christ, they attained great heights of virtue, so much so that they healed various illnesses of people who came to them. The governor Fronto, however, who learned of them, sent men to arrest them, and because they refused to abandon their faith in Christ, he began to subject them to harsh tortures: the twisting of their limbs, casting them into the fire, the flaying of their bodies with iron claws, hanging them upon a wooden frame, and finally death by the sword. In all these things the holy women endured steadfastly, keeping their minds fixed on the love of Christ and being strengthened by His grace. After they had surrendered their spirits to God, the governor wanted to burn their holy bodies, but the flames turned against him, while a torrential rain immediately extinguished the fire. The Christians gathered up their relics and buried them with great reverence.
2. Two things are especially admirable in these three sisters whom our Church celebrates today. First, that from the beginning to the end of their lives they were loving toward one another, so much so that they were like one soul in three bodies. Both in their family home in Bithynia and when they departed for the place of their asceticism, and also in their martyrdom, they acted as one person. There is a very beautiful image used by the ecclesiastical poet to express this unity of theirs. He calls them “a three-lamped torch, a three-storied dwelling, the tabernacle of the Holy Trinity.” And this is truly admirable, because, unfortunately, it is not uncommon for brothers and sisters not to be animated by the natural love that should characterize their relationships. Indeed, many times there is not only an absence of love, but hatred also develops, which, especially when questions of inheritance arise, can reach extreme situations. Among female siblings in particular, what characteristically develops and often poisons their relationships is jealousy. It is a tragic reality of which we spiritual confessors often become witnesses. The love, therefore, between these three holy sisters constitutes both an example and a rebuke. This is the normal and natural state, and it is this alone, of course, that God blesses.
The second thing that is admirable is the courage they displayed both in the severe asceticism they undertook on the hill to which they withdrew, and above all at the hour of their martyrdom. The female nature has always been regarded as softer and therefore more vulnerable to harsh circumstances, something that the Saints we commemorate today, as well as all the women saints of our Church, have shown to be powerless as an argument. The governor Fronto first encountered a “rock” when he attempted to persuade them to abandon the faith of Christ. And it was precisely at the time of their martyrdom that their will proved to be granite-hard. The Hymnographer, astonished before their God-inspired resolve, notes: “With a body weak and incomplete, but with perfect resolve, you wrestled down the murderous dragon, the author of evil, O glorious ones, by the power of the Spirit, and showed his strength to be powerless.”
It is, of course, unnecessary to remind us that underlying both of these admirable qualities of these Holy Martyrs, as their prerequisite and foundation, are their fervent faith in Christ and their perfect love for Him. Faith and love for Him give human beings, on the one hand, unity, and even more so, perseverance in martyrdom. And this is the Church’s answer to every similar situation: wherever there is discord, jealousy, hatred, and enmity, wherever there are difficulties and adversities in life, there is one solution: for the person to turn toward Christ. It is not by chance that the Hymnographer interprets both of these admirable qualities in precisely this way, characterizing their sisterly love as spiritual: “bound together in spirit as sisters,” while he interprets their martyrdom as the result of their being strengthened by the love of Christ: “Having loved wholly the glorified Word, you endured, unwounded by longing for Him, the assaults of suffering with the greatest steadfastness.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
