Virgin Martyr Pelagia of Antioch

Saint Pelagia was a fifteen-year-old virgin of a noble family in Antioch, Syria, a disciple of Hieromartyr Lucian of Antioch. During the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, the city governor learned she was a secret Christian and sent soldiers to seize her.

Seeing the soldiers approach, the saint prayed to God to preserve her virginity and grant her an unblemished sacrifice, dressed in her finest garments, and threw herself from the roof of her house, dying instantly — choosing death over violation and forced apostasy.

Although she underwent no formal torture, St. Ambrose of Milan and St. John Chrysostom both praised her act as an example of true martyrdom for purity.

IMPORTANT NOTE: she should be distinguished from another, separate saint — Venerable Pelagia of Antioch (of the Mount of Olives), the Penitent, who lived a century later (5th c.), a former dancer who converted and became a hermit on the Mount of Olives under the name of the monk Pelagius; that saint is venerable, not a martyr, and her commemoration in some calendars falls on this same day, which is a frequent source of confusion.

Her feast is kept on October 8/21.