Martyr Kyriaki of Nicomedia

Martyr Kyriaki was born to the pious, long-childless Christians Dorotheus and Eusebia, who had prayed for a child and vowed to dedicate her to God. Born on a Sunday, she was named Kyriaki ("of the Lord," from Greek κυριακή — "Sunday," "the Lord's day").

She refused marriage to a pagan suitor, declaring herself the bride of Christ, which provoked a denunciation from the rejected suitor. Kyriaki's parents were seized, tortured, and beheaded. She herself was sent to Nicomedia in Bithynia, where she endured cruel torments from the governor Hilarius and then the judge Apollonius: scourging, fire, and being cast to wild beasts, which did her no harm; according to tradition, Christ Himself appeared to her in prison and healed her wounds; pagan idols collapsed at her prayer.

According to some sources, she was beheaded by the sword on Apollonius's order; according to others, having asked for time for a final prayer, she died peacefully during it, miraculously delivered by God from the execution itself. Her relics, according to tradition, were later translated to the Bulgarian city of Tarnovo.

Her feast is kept on July 7/20.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: category_gender has been corrected from the erroneous "m" to the correct "f" — Kyriaki is, of course, a woman, directly confirmed by the icon inscription "Η ΑΓΙΑ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗ" ("Saint Kyriaki," with the feminine article). All grammatical forms in the life have been correspondingly changed from masculine to feminine.