The Holy Great Martyr Kyriake (nedelja)

Life

In the time of the Christ-hating emperors Diocletian and his son-in-law Maximian, there lived in Anatolia two pious elderly souls, Dorotheus and Eusebia. They were devout Christians, wealthy but childless. By unceasing prayer they besought from God a child, this holy Kyriake. From childhood Kyriake dedicated herself to God, abstaining from everything that dissolute children do. When she grew up, beautiful in body and soul, many suitors pressed upon her, but she rejected them all, saying that she had betrothed herself to Christ the Lord and desired nothing but to die a maiden. One of the rejected suitors accused both Kyriake and her parents before the Emperor Diocletian as Christians. The emperor ordered that the parents of Kyriake be tortured, and after their tortures he banished them to the city of Melitene, where they ended their lives in sufferings for Christ. As for holy Kyriake, Diocletian sent her to Maximian for judgment. When Kyriake confessed her faith in Christ before Maximian, he ordered that she be laid on the ground and beaten with ox sinews. Then the emperor handed her over to his commanders, first to Hilarion and after his death to Apollonius. They tortured her savagely in every possible way, but all was in vain. When holy Kyriake lay in prison, covered with wounds, Christ the Lord appeared to her, healed her, and said to her: "Fear not the torments, Kyriake, My grace is with thee." And indeed the grace of Christ saved this martyr both from fire and from wild beasts, where the godless judges supposed she would surely meet her death. Seeing the miraculous deliverance of Kyriake from so many deaths, many pagans believed in Christ. But all of them were beheaded. Saint Kyriake said to Apollonius: "By no means canst thou turn me from my faith. If thou castest me into fire, I have the example of the Three Youths; if thou castest me before wild beasts, I have the example of Daniel; if thou castest me into the sea, I have the example of Jonah the Prophet; if thou givest me over to the sword, I shall remember the Honorable Forerunner. For me, to die for Christ is to live." Then Apollonius ordered that she be beheaded with the sword. Kyriake knelt and raised her hands to heaven and prayed to God, that God would have mercy upon and save all those who would celebrate her memory, and that He would grant rest to her soul together with the souls of her parents. Having finished her prayer, she surrendered her soul to God before the sword descended upon her head. She suffered honorably and departed to eternal joy in the year 289, in Nicomedia.

From the Hymn of Praise

Only child, the holy maiden Kyriake,Her parents for the faith did die,Her parents, saints of God Most High.An orphan, the holy maiden Kyriake,