January 4 / December 22

1. The Holy Great-martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Bonds, and others with her

This glorious heroine of the Christian Faith was born in Rome into a wealthy senatorial family of a pagan father and a Christian mother. From her early youth, she clung in love to the Lord Jesus, guided in the teaching of Christ by a devout teacher, Chrysogonus. Anastasia was forced by her father to enter into marriage with a pagan landowner, Publius. Excusing her- self on the basis of a female illness, she in no way wished to enter into physical relations with him. For this, her husband tortured her harshly by confinement and starvation. He inflicted, even more, tortures upon her when he learned of her secret visits to the prisons of the Chris- tian martyrs: bringing them provisions, ministering to them, bathing their wounds, and loosening their bonds. But by God’s providence, she was freed from her wicked husband. Publius was sent to Persia by the emperor, and while sailing on the sea he was drowned. St. Anastasia then began to minister freely to the tortured Christian martyrs and to comfort the poor, giving them alms from her great inheritance. At one time the Emperor Diocletian was in the town of Aquileia and ordered that Chrysogonus, the confessor of Christ, be brought to him. St. Anastasia accompanied him on the way. Holy Chrysogonus was beheaded by order of the emperor, and then three sisters—Agape, Chionia, and Irene—also suffered (April 16): the first two were cast into fire and the third was shot through with arrows. St. Anastasia took their bodies, wrapped them in white linen, anointed them with many aromatic spices, and honorably buried them. Following this, Anastasia went to Macedonia, where she helped the sufferers for Christ. There she became well known as a Christian, for which she was seized and brought before various judges for interrogation and torture. Desiring to die for her beloved Christ, Anastasia constantly longed for Him in her heart. A certain chief of the pagan priests, Ulpianus, lustfully tried to touch St. Anastasia’s body, but he was suddenly blinded and breathed his last. Condemned to death by starvation, St. Anastasia lingered in prison for thirty days without food, nourish- ing herself only on tears and prayer. Then she was placed in a boat with several other Christians to be drowned, but God delivered her even from this death. She was finally tied by the feet and hands to four wheels over a fire, and she gave up her holy soul to God. She suffered and took up her habitation in the Kingdom of Christ in the year 304.

2.  The Holy Martyr Theodota with her three children

Being left a young widow with three children, Theodota gave herself completely to the service of God and the rearing of her children in devout faith. St. Anastasia lived with her when she was in Macedonia, and together they visited the Christian prisoners in the jails. Brought to trial, Theodota boldly confessed Christ the Lord. Then she was sent to Nicetas, the proconsul of Bithynia. When a shameless pagan tried to touch her body, he immediately saw an angel of God beside her and was struck by the angel. Condemned to death and cast into a fiery furnace together with her three children, St. Theodota honorably ended her earthly life and entered into the Kingdom of Eternal Glory.

• Boris of Kostroma (1970).

HYMN OF PRAISE

The Holy Great-martyr Anastasia, the Deliverer from Bonds

The holy maiden Anastasia serves God;
She shines before God by faith, hope and deeds.
The maiden leaves husband, honor and riches,
And gladly serves the captives, glorifying God.
She looses the bonds, and washes the wounds of the martyrs;
She looses their bonds, giving gifts and not fetters.
She seeks payment neither from men nor from the earth.
Christ God eases her soul and heart.
Her pains have passed, and Anastasia remains in glory;
She now rejoices with the angels in heaven.

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