The Holy Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra and The Holy Seven Virgins.
Theodotus was married and an innkeeper
in Ancyra during the reign of Diocletian. Although married, he lived
according to the word of the apostle: "Let those having wives
act as not having them" (1 Corinthians 7:29). He maintained the
inn in order to unsuspectedly help Christians. His inn was a shelter
of the persecuted faithful. Theodotus secretly sent help to those
Christians who fled to the mountains and secretly gathered the bodies
of those who died and buried them. At that time, seven maidens were
brought to trial and tortured for Christ, ridiculed and finally
drowned in a lake. One of them, St. Thecusa appeared in a dream to
Theodotus and told to him to remove their bodies from the lake and
bury them. In the darkness of night, Theodotus, with a companion,
went out to fulfill the wish of the martyr and, led by an angel of
God, succeeded to locate all seven bodies and bury them. But this
companion betrayed Theodotus to the judge and the judge subjected him
to cruel tortures. Theodotus endured all sufferings as though he were
in someone else's body keeping his whole mind engrossed in the Lord.
When the torturer transformed his entire body into wounds and knocked
out his teeth with a stone, he ordered him to be beheaded. When he
was led to the scaffold, many Christians wept for him and
St. Theodotus said to them: "Brethren,
do not weep for me but glorify our Lord Jesus Christ Who helped me to
complete this mortification and to overcome my enemy." Having
said this, he place his head on the block under the sword and was
beheaded in the year 303 A.D. A priest honorably buried this martyr's
body on a hill outside the town. Later on, a church was built on this
spot in the name of St. Theodotus.
The Holy Martyrs Peter, Dionysius and their Companions.
Peter, a handsome young man; Dionysius,
a distinguished man; Andrew and Paul, soldiers; and Christina, a
sixteen year old virgin, all courageously confessed Christ the Lord
and endured sufferings and death for His Name. Nicomachus, who along
with them was tortured, denied Christ in the middle of his tortures
and, instantly lost his mind and, as a mad man, bit his body and
threw up foam from his mouth until he died. This occurred in the year
250 A.D. 
No comments:
Post a Comment