Martyr
Martyr Sira (Shirin) of Persia
VI в., † 558 (по др. данным — 559)
Also known as: Сира, дева Персидская, Ширин, Шира, Shirin of Karka d-Beth Slokh, Sira the Virgin
Daughter of a Persian fire-priest and herself a priestess, she converted to Christ, was baptized in prison and was strangled under King Khosrow I in 558/559.
Saint Sira (Shirin) lived in sixth-century Persia under King Khosrow I. The daughter of a prominent Zoroastrian fire-priest of Karka d-Beth Slokh, she was raised by a priestess and herself served at a fire temple. Conversations with poor Christian women led her to Christ; she learned prayers and psalms and began to fast.
The bishop postponed her baptism, fearing persecution, and advised her first to confess her faith openly before her family. During the morning sacrifice Sira scattered the sacred fire, overturned the altar and declared herself a Christian. Her father beat her, imprisoned her and finally denounced her to the chief priest, the governor and the king. In prison she secretly received baptism after bribing the guards; her Life tells how her chains repeatedly fell off and how she recovered from a grave illness, asking to die as a martyr rather than of sickness.
She was condemned to be strangled; the executioners repeatedly slackened the rope, offering her life if she renounced Christ, but she refused. Her body was thrown to the dogs, which did not touch it, and Christians buried her. The Russian Menologion dates her death to 558, scholars to 559; her Martyrdom survives in a Greek translation of a lost Syriac original. Feast: 24 August (6 September).