Venerable Martyr Febronia of Nisibis (Syria)

Venerable Martyr Febronia was raised from age three in a women's monastery near Nisibis (Sivapolis, Mesopotamia) by her aunt, the abbess Vrienna, and from her youth was known for strict piety and a longing for monastic life. During the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305), the local governor Selinus, a relative of the emperor, demanded that Febronia marry his nephew Lysimachus (himself inclined toward Christianity) and renounce her faith. For her resolute refusal she was subjected to the cruelest torments: her teeth were knocked out, her tongue was cut, her breast was severed, then her hands and feet were cut off, and finally she was beheaded. Lysimachus, having witnessed her sufferings, came to believe in Christ. Tradition holds that the saint's relics were later translated to Constantinople; she is depicted among the 140 saints on the colonnade of St. Peter's Square in Rome. She died continually praying for her tormentors. Her memory is kept on June 25/July 8.