Virgin Martyr Theodosia of Tyre

IMPORTANT NOTE: three of the five images previously in this stub turned out to be entirely unrelated contamination — "St. Righteous Ilarion the Schema-monk" (a male saint unrelated to the subject), a "Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Sviatohirsk Mountains" (an all-male group of saints), and an icon of a modern, officially uncanonized schema-nun, Theodosia (Kosorotikhina), a 20th–21st-century Pskov ascetic venerated only locally and not glorified by the Church — all three have been excluded as unrelated to the ancient martyr.

Saint Martyr Theodosia was born in Tyre and was about 17–18 years old during the final wave of persecution under Emperor Galerius. While in Caesarea Palestine on the eve of Pascha, she approached imprisoned Christians awaiting execution, greeted them, and openly confessed her faith. For this she was seized and, refusing to sacrifice to idols, was tortured.

Tradition holds she was thrown into the sea but was saved by angels and walked on the water; she was then exposed to wild beasts, which did not touch her — and in the end she was beheaded. Her parents received a vision of their daughter in radiant garments, crowned and holding a cross.

Her feast is kept on April 3/16; a second, less firmly dated commemoration (May 29) is associated with the translation of her relics.