By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. These Saints lived during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Saint Sophia was widowed at an early age and was compelled to move to Rome with her three daughters, Faith, Hope, and Love. The emperor learned that these four women were Christians, and therefore he sent men to arrest them. He first summoned the eldest sister, Faith, who was twelve years old, to give an account of herself. At first, he tried with enticing words to persuade her to deny Christ, but, of course, he did not succeed. Enraged, he ordered that she be beheaded. The emperor met with the same outcome with the other two, ten-year-old Hope and nine-year-old Love. Seeing their steadfastness as well, he again ordered that they be beheaded. Saint Sophia was not only ungrieved by what had happened, but also felt a particular pride in the faith of her daughters. Therefore, she buried them with honors, while remaining for three days at their graves, fervently beseeching the Lord to receive her also into His Kingdom. God heard her prayer, and thus Saint Sophia gave up her spirit beside her children.
2. Saint Sophia does not belong to the martyrs of our Church in the manner in which we understand them, that is, as those who gave their blood out of faith and love for Christ. This does not mean, however, that the martyrdom she endured was any less than that of the other martyrs. For, apart from the fact that she lived as a “martyr in conscience,” that is, striving to keep the commandments of Christ, and especially the commandment to love even her enemies, the martyrdom of witnessing the sufferings of her daughters, and particularly their beheading, is one of the greatest martyrdoms a person, and especially a mother, can endure in this world. Who can deny that our Lady, the Theotokos, herself also endured a martyrdom of blood, sharing in the Passion of her Son and God? If we pay even a little attention to the relevant hymns of our Church concerning the Passion of the Lord, we will discover that a large portion of them also refers to the suffering of the Lady Theotokos. Indeed, the Gospel itself, when it describes the Reception of the Lord, that is, His encounter, at the age of forty days, with the elder Symeon the God-receiver in the Temple of Jerusalem, records the prophecy of Saint Symeon that a sword would pierce the heart of the Theotokos, in view, of course, of what the Lord would suffer, particularly upon the Cross.
And how many parents today do not themselves wish to endure the sufferings of their children when they see them suffering in various ways? This means that their pain is often even greater than that of their children. Thus Saint Sophia also belongs among the martyrs, in the manner we have described, and for this reason our Church has, with great wisdom, placed her in the same company as them.
The Hymnographer, of course, does not cease to praise the faith and courage not only of the mother but also of her three daughters, who were particularly young in age, yet possessed the wisdom and maturity of old age. He makes full use of both their number and their names. By this we mean that he frequently connects their triad with the Holy Trinity and their names — Faith, Hope, and Love — with the triad of virtues mentioned by the Apostle Paul: “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Thus, for example, we hear in the Exapostelarion of the feast:
“The three maidens of the Trinity, burning with zeal, and cleaving to the triad of virtues, Hope, Faith, and Love, being named alike, despised the torments.”
“Most renowned Faith, and glorious Love, and divinely wise Hope, shown forth as the namesakes of the most radiant virtues.”
Indeed, these three girls, who at their age would otherwise still be playing with dolls, utterly defeated the devil and his instruments and became heroic models for all generations. Their mother Sophia had breathed her own faith and her own love into them, thereby demonstrating how decisive the contribution of the mother, in particular, is to the upbringing of children. This also means that age is not what matters, but rather a person's disposition, in order for that person to be worthy of respect and honor before God, the angels, and human beings.
In other words, we might call these three little girls “child-eldresses,” for they had understood that their relationship with the Holy Trinity, that is, with the true God, was the fundamental purpose of life, and that for this relationship to be alive, it “passes through” the virtues of faith, love, and hope.
Through their intercessions, Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
