Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan Woman

ADDITION: clarified the relationship to the movable feast — the fixed date March 20/April 2 is her actual commemoration day (martyrdom) in the ROC calendar. A separate movable observance, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (5th Sunday after Pascha), commemorates the Gospel event (John 4) within the paschal cycle of the Triodion, and is not formally "her feast day" in the strict sense — these are two distinct, non-conflicting observances.

Holy Martyr Photina (Svetlana) is identified by tradition with the Samaritan woman who spoke with the Lord Jesus Christ at Jacob's Well in Sychar, where He revealed to her the mystery of the living water (John 4:4–42) — hence the name "Photina," the Enlightened One. Having believed, she became a zealous preacher of the Gospel.

Under Emperor Nero (54–68), she and her younger son Joses preached in Carthage, while her elder son Victor, a Roman military commander in Attaleia, converted the city's governor Sebastian to Christ. When Nero learned of the spread of Christianity in his circle, he summoned the confessors to Rome for trial. After torture, Sebastian, Victor, and Joses were blinded and imprisoned, while Photina herself, together with her five sisters — Anatolia, Photo, Photis, Paraskeva, and Kyriake — was placed under the guard of Nero's daughter Domnina, whom the saint converted along with her maidservants.

After three years of imprisonment and severe torments, all the confessors were martyred around 66 AD; one tradition holds Photina herself was cast into a well.