The Holy Virgins
Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora (305-311), were sisters by birth, and
they were from Bithynia (Asia Minor). Distinguished for their especial piety,
the Christian sisters wanted to preserve their virginity and avoid worldly
association. They chose for themselves a solitary place in the wilderness and
spent their lives in deeds of fasting and prayer. Reports about the holy life
of the virgins soon spread about, since through their prayers healings of the
sick began to occur. The Bithynia region was governed at that time by a
governor named Frontonus, who gave orders to arrest the sisters and bring them
before him. At first he tried to persuade them to renounce Christ, promising
great honours and rewards. But the holy sisters steadfastly confessed their
faith before him, rejecting all the suggestions of the governor, and declaring
to him, that they did not value temporal earthly blessings, and that they were
prepared to die for their Heavenly Bridegroom. Going into a rage, the governor
took out his wrath on the eldest of them – Saint Menodora. The saint bravely
endured the torments and finally, she cried out: "Lord Jesus Christ, joy
of my heart, my hope, in peace receive Thou my soul!" And with these words
she gave up her spirit to God.
Four days later they
brought to the court the younger sisters Metrodora and Nymphodora. They put
before them the battered body of their elder sister to frighten them. The
virgins wept over her, but they likewise remained steadfast. Then they
subjected Saint Metrodora to torture. She died, crying out with her last breath
to her beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Then they turned to the third sister
Nymphodora. Before her lay the bruised bodies of her elder sisters. Frontonus
hoped that this spectacle would intimidate the young virgin. Under pretense
that he was charmed by her youth and beauty, he began amiably to urge her to
worship the pagan gods, promising great rewards and honours. Saint Nymphodora
rebuffed his words, and shared the fate of her older sisters. She was tortured
to death with blows from iron rods.
The bodies of the
holy martyrs were to be burnt on a bon-fire, but a strong rain extinguished the
blazing fire, and lightning felled Frontonus and his servant. Christians took
up the bodies of the holy sisters and reverently buried them at the so-called
Warm Springs at Pythias (Bithynia). Part of the relics of the holy martyrs
are preserved at Athos in the Pokrov-Protection cathedral of the Russian
Panteleimon monastery, and the hand of Saint Metrodora is situated on the Holy
Mountain in the monastery of the Pantocrator.