Martyr
Martyr Love (Lyubov) of Rome
† 137 (в возрасте 9 лет)
Martyr Love (Lyubov) — the youngest of the widow Sophia's three daughters, who at age 9 was the last to endure torment and beheading in Rome under Emperor Hadrian, following her sisters Faith and Hope.
Lyubov (Love) was the youngest of three daughters of the Roman Christian widow Sophia, named after the chief Christian virtues (Faith, Hope, Love); she was only nine years old.
Having watched her older sisters, Faith (age 12, see martyr_faith) and Hope (age 10, see martyr_hope), die as martyrs before her, it fell to Lyubov to face the torturers next. She was stretched on a wheel and beaten until her body was torn, and when a furnace was prepared she was ordered to worship Artemis or burn — she answered, "Great is my God Jesus Christ; Artemis and you with her will perish!" and walked into the fire herself, remaining unharmed and singing praises to God.
Her limbs were then bored through with red-hot augers, yet she miraculously survived even this, before finally being beheaded. Her mother, Saint Sophia — spared physical torment but subjected to the far crueler anguish of losing all three children — buried her daughters' remains and, after three days at their grave, died peacefully.
The joint feast of all four is kept September 17/30. Mother Sophia (martyr_sophia) remains the last unresearched stub of this family in the database.