Holy Martyr Dorothea

Life

Dorothea was a distinguished and beautiful virgin from Caesarea of Cappadocia. The governor of the region, Sapricius, gave Dorothea to two pagan sisters, Christina and Callista, so that they might turn her away from Christ. But the opposite happened; Dorothea succeeded in converting both sisters to the Christian faith. Enraged, Sapricius ordered that the two sisters be bound back to back and cast into a vat of pitch, and then set on fire. Then Dorothea too was condemned to death. She joyfully heard the sentence, and cried out: "I thank Thee, soul-loving Christ, that Thou callest me into Thy Paradise, and leadest me into Thy most holy courts!" A certain nobleman present, Theophilus, laughed at these words and called out to Dorothea: "Listen, bride of Christ, send me apples and flowers of roses from the Paradise of thy bridegroom!" "Truly I will do this!" the martyr answered him. When Dorothea was at the place of execution, suddenly there appeared a beautiful boy with three marvelous apples and three red rose flowers. This was an angel of God. And the time was winter. Dorothea told the angel to take this to Theophilus and to tell him: "Here is what you desired!" When Theophilus received the message and saw the gift, he was completely terrified. Everything in him was turned around, and he, a hardened pagan, became a Christian. And he too was tortured and killed for Christ, and his soul went to the Paradise of the Lord Jesus soon after Saint Dorothea.