Venerable Martyr Febronia of Nisibis

Venerable-Martyr Febronia, Virgin of Nisibis (also called "of Syria"), was born c. 284 and raised from childhood in a women's monastery in Sivapolis, Assyria, near Nisibis in Mesopotamia, under the guardianship of her aunt, Abbess Bryaenna, who held her to a stricter rule than the other nuns.

Renowned for her piety and beauty, she converted many, including the noblewoman Hieria. During Diocletian's persecution in 304, a military detachment led by Lysimachus and his uncle Selinus attacked the convent; most nuns fled, but Febronia remained with the abbess and the novice Thomais.

When she refused to renounce Christ and marry Lysimachus, Selinus subjected her to horrific torture — beatings, burning, extraction of teeth and tongue, amputation of her breasts, hands, and feet — before she was beheaded. Her relics were translated to Constantinople in 363.

Her feast is kept on June 25/July 8.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: category refined great_martyr→venerable_martyr — she was a nun (every Russian-language source titles her "venerable-martyr," never "great martyr"). CRITICAL: the entry's former sole image turned out to depict ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, much later saints — Right-Believing Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia of Murom (13th c., patrons of marriage) — removed as belonging to different people.