St Euphemia ~ A Bi-Ritual Saint

St Euphemia was martyred in the Diocletianic Persecution. She is honoured in both East and West on 16 September. Here is her story from both Traditions:

From the East:

The Holy Great Martyr Euphēmia (Ευφημία) was the daughter of Christian parents, the senator Philophronos and his wife Theodosia. She suffered for Christ in the year 304 in the city of Chalcedon, on the Bosphorus opposite Constantinople, the Queen of Cities.

Priscus, the Proconsul of Chalcedon, issued a decree which required all the inhabitants of Chalcedon and the surrounding area to attend a pagan festival, in order to worship and offer sacrifice to the idol of Ares. He threatened grave torments for anyone who failed to appear. During this impious festival, 49 Christians were hidden in one house, where they worshipped the true God in secret. The young virgin Euphēmia was among those who prayed there.

Soon their hiding place was discovered, and they were brought before Priscus to answer the charges against them. For nineteen days the martyrs were subjected to various torments, but none of them wavered in their faith, nor did they consent to offer sacrifice to the idol. The governor, beside himself with rage and not knowing any other way of forcing the Christians to abandon their faith, sent them to Emperor Diocletian for trial. He kept the youngest, the virgin Euphēmia, hoping that she would not persevere if she were left all alone.

Separated from her fellow Christians, Saint Euphēmia fervently prayed that the Lord Jesus Christ would strengthen her for her impending ordeal. Priscus urged the Saint to offer sacrifice to the idol, promising her many rewards. When she refused, he ordered that she be tortured.

The martyr was tied to a wheel with sharp knives attached to it, which slashed her body. The Saint prayed aloud, and miraculously, the wheel stopped by itself and would not move despite all the efforts of the executioners. An angel of the Lord, came down from Heaven, removed Euphēmia from the wheel, and healed her of her wounds, and the Saint gave thanks to God.

Priscus did not notice the miracle which had taken place, so he ordered the soldiers Victor and Sosthenes to take the Saint to a red-hot furnace. But the soldiers, seeing two Angels in the midst of the flames, refused to carry out the Proconsul's order and declared that they believed in the God Whom Euphēmia worshipped. Boldly proclaiming that they were Christians, Victor and Sosthenes awaited punishment. They were sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts. In the arena, they begged God to forgive the sins they had committed, asking the Lord to receive them into the Heavenly Kingdom. A Divine voice was heard, and the two soldiers entered into eternal life. The beasts, however, did not harm their bodies.

Saint Euphēmia, cast into the fire by other soldiers, did not suffer. With God's help she emerged unscathed after many other torments. Ascribing these things to sorcery, Priscus ordered a pit to be dug. Filling it with knives, he had it covered over with earth and grass, so that the martyr would not notice this trap.

Once again, Saint Euphēmia remained safe, walking over the pit. Finally, she was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts in the arena. Before her execution, the Saint prayed that the Lord would deem her worthy of martyrdom. But none of the bears or lions attacked her, but only licked her feet. Finally, one she-bear wounded her foot, which bled slightly, and the Holy Great Martyr Euphēmia died right away. As her soul departed, there was an earthquake. The city was shaken, the walls fell down, and the pagan temples crumbled. As Saint Euphēmia lay dead in the sand, the guards and spectators fled in terror, so that the Saint's parents were able to take her body and bury it near Chalcedon.

Later, a majestic church was built over the grave of the Great Martyr Euphēmia. The sessions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council took place there in the year 451. At that time, the Holy Great Martyr Euphēmia confirmed the Catholic confession of faith in a miraculous way, exposing the Monophysite heresy. That miracle is commemorated on July 11.

When the Persians captured Chalcedon in the year 617, the relics of the holy Great Martyr Euphēmia were transferred to Constantinople (around the year 620). During the Iconoclast heresy, the reliquary containing Saint Euphēmia's relics seems to have been thrown into the sea, but pious sailors recovered them. They were brought to the island of Lemnos, and they were returned to Constantinople in 796.

The incorrupt body of Saint Euphēmia is in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George at the Phanar in Constantinople. Portions of her relics are to be found in Kykkos Monastery on Cyprus, and in the Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra at Saint Petersburg.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your lamb Euphēmia calls out to You, O Jesus, in a loud voice: / “I love You, my Bridegroom, and in seeking You I endure suffering. / In Baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You, / and I died so that I might live with You. / Accept me as a pure sacrifice, / for I have offered myself in love.” / Through her prayers, save our souls, since You are merciful.

Troparion — Tone 4

(Slavic usage)
You loved your Bridegroom Christ, / and your lamp was well trimmed1 shining with virtue, O All-praised Euphēmia, / and so you went in with Him to the wedding feast,2 / receiving from Him a crown of martyrdom. / Deliver us from misfortune, who revere your memory with faith.1 Matthew 25:7 2 Matthew 25:10

Kontakion — Tone 4

(Podoben: “As You were voluntarily raised...”)
In your struggle you contested well, Euphēmia; / even after death you make us holy by gushing forth miracles, O All-praised one. / Therefore, we honour your holy repose, standing by your august relics with faith, / in order to be delivered from spiritual afflictions, / and that we may draw forth the grace of your miracles.

From the West:

From The Golden Legend of Blessed Jacobus Voragine, translated by William Caxton in 1483.

HERE FOLLOWETH THE LIFE OF S. EUFEMIA

Eufemia was daughter of a senator, and saw christian men in the time of Diocletian so sore tormented and all to-rent by divers torments, that she came to the judge and confessed her to be christian. And she comforted by example the courages of other men, and by her constancy. And when the judge slew the christian men, the one tofore another, and made others to be present because they should be afeard of that they saw the others so cruelly tormented and broken, and that they should sacrifice for dread and fear, and when Eufemia saw even thus tofore her the holy saints, she was the more constant by the steadfastness of the martyrs, and spoke to the judge, and said that she suffered wrong of him.

Then the judge was glad, weening that she would have consented to do sacrifice, and when he demanded of her what wrong he had done to her, she said to him: For sith I am of noble lineage, why puttest thou tofore me the strangers and unknown, and makest them go to Christ tofore me? For it were my pleasure to go thither by martyrdom tofore them. And the judge said to her: I had supposed thou wouldst have returned in thy thought, and I was glad that thou haddest remembered thy noblesse.

HER PASSION

And then she was inclosed in the prison, and the day following, without bonds, was brought tofore the judge. And then she complained right grievously why against the laws of the emperors she was alone spared for to be out of bonds. And then she was long beaten with fists, and after, sent again to prison, and the judge followed her, and would have taken her by force for to have accomplished his foul lust, but she defended her forcibly, and the virtue divine made the hands of the Judge to be lame.

And then the judge weened to have been enchanted, and sent to her the provost of his house for to promise to her many things for to make her consent to him, but he might never open the prison which was shut, neither with key ne with axes, till he was ravished with a devil, crying and treating himself, that unnethe he escaped.

And then she was drawn out and set upon a wheel full of burning coals. And the artillour, that was master of the torment, had given a token to them to turn it, that when he should make a sound, that they all should turn it, and the fire should spring out and all to-break and rend the body of the virgin; but by the ordinance of God the iron that the artillour and master had in his hand, fell to the earth, and made the sound. And they turned hastily so that the wheel burnt the master of the work and kept Eufemia without hurt, sitting upon the wheel. And the parents of the artillour wept and put the fire under the wheel and would have burnt Eufemia with the wheel, but the wheel was burnt, and Eufemia was unbounden by the angel of God, and was seen to stand all whole, unhurt, in a high place.

And then Apulius said to the judge: The virtue of christian people may not be overcome but by iron, therefore I counsel thee to do smite off her head. Then they set up ladders, and as one would have set hand on her, he was anon smitten with a palsy, and was borne thence half dead. And another named Sosthenes went up on high, but anon he was changed in his courage and repented him and required her humbly pardon, and when he had his sword drawn he cried to the judge that he had liefer slay himself than touch her whom the angels defended.

At the last, when she was taken thence, the judge said to his chancellor that he should send to her all the young men that were jolly, for to enforce and to make her do their will till she should fail and die. And then he entered in and saw with her many fair virgins praying with her, and she made him to be christened with her admonishments.

And then the provost did do take the virgin by the hair and hung her thereby, and she ever abode constant and immovable. And then he did do shut her in prison without meat seven days, and pressed her there between four great stones as who should press olives, but she was every day fed with an angel. And when she was between those two hard stones she made her prayers, and the stones were converted into right soft ashes.

Then the provost was ashamed for to be vanquished of a maid; and then he made her to be thrown into a pit whereas cruel beasts were, which devoured every man that came therein and swallowed them in. And anon they ran to this holy virgin in fawning her, and joined their tails together, and made of them a chair for her to sit on. And when the judge saw that, he was much confounded, so that almost he died for anguish and sorrow.

Then the butcher came for to avenge the injury of his lord and smote his sword into her side, and all to-hewed her and made her there the martyr of Jesu Christ our Lord. And the judge clad him with clothes of silk, and hung on him ouches and brooches of gold, but when he should have issued out of the pit, he was ravished of the beasts, and all devoured anon. And then his people sought him long, and unnethe found they a little of his bones with his clothes of silk and his ouches of gold. And then the judge ate himself for madness, and so was found dead wretchedly.

CONCLUSION

And Eufemia was buried in Chalcedonia, and by her merits all the Jews and paynims of Chalcedonia believed in Jesu Christ. And she suffered death about the year of our Lord two hundred and eighty. And S. Ambrose saith of this virgin thus:

The holy virgin, triumphant in virginity, retaining the mitre, deserved to be clad with the crown, by whose merits the wicked enemy is vanquished, and Priscus, her adversary and judge, is overcome. The virgin is saved from the furnace of fire, hard stones be converted into powder, wild beasts be made meek and tame, and incline down their necks, and all manner of pains and torments by her orations and prayers be overcome. And at the last, smitten with a sword, she left the cloister of her flesh, and is joined to the celestial company, glad and joyous. And, blessed Lord, this blessed virgin commendeth to thee thy church, and, good Lord, let her pray to thee for us sinners, and this virgin, without corruption flourishing, get unto us that our desires may be granted of thee.