Venerable Martyrs Archelais, Thecla, and Susanna

Life

As nuns, pure and virginal, they struggled ascetically in an insignificant monastery near Rome. But when the persecution of Christians began under the wicked Emperor Diocletian, they fled to Campania and settled there near the city of Nola. Their holy life could not be hidden from men, and people from the surrounding places began to come to them seeking counsel, instruction, and help in various afflictions and illnesses. But at last they were seized by the pagans and brought to trial. They openly and freely confessed their faith in Christ. When the judge Leontius asked the holy Archelais about the faith of Christ, she answered: "By the power of Christ I trample the power of the devil; I teach men to know the one true God, and in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, health is given through me, His handmaiden, to all who are sick." All three virgins were beaten, doused with boiling pitch, starved in prison, and finally beheaded with a sword. When they were led to the place of execution, angels appeared to them, which some of the executioners also saw and were so frightened that they dared not raise the sword against the holy virgins. But the virgins encouraged them to carry out their duty. And so they were beheaded like lambs in the year 293 and went to the Kingdom of Christ, to rest in eternity and delight in beholding the face of God.