Martyr
Martyr Anthia of Illyricum
† ок. 120-х
Also known as: Анфия Римская
Martyr Anthia raised her son Eleutherius in Christian piety, and at his execution in Rome under Emperor Hadrian she voluntarily declared herself a Christian, embraced his body, and was put to the sword together with him.
Martyr Anthia raised her son Eleutherius in Christian piety; his virtues were such that he was made Bishop of Illyricum at the age of twenty. Under Emperor Hadrian, Saint Eleutherius was arrested for his bold preaching of Christ, cruelly tortured, and condemned to death in Rome.
His mother Anthia voluntarily came to the place of execution, declared herself a Christian, and embraced her son's beheaded body, after which she herself was put to the sword and fell dead upon him. Their former torturer, the eparch Corivus, who had come to believe in Christ, was martyred alongside them.
Their memory is kept on December 15 — the day a church in Constantinople dedicated to Eleutherius and Anthia was consecrated under Emperor Arcadius.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON THE IMAGE: the entry's sole image turned out to be a photograph of an insect (a beetle), entirely unrelated to the subject — removed.