Memorial Day of the Martyr Photina

On April 2, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Martyr Photina According to the old calendar style, this is March 20 Her name, translated from Greek into Russian, sounds like Svetlana, so all Svetlanas can consider the saint their patroness and pray to her on this day Photina was born in the 1st century in Samaria, in what is now Israel One day, while collecting water from a well, she gave water to a traveler to drink They started talking, the woman realized that she was talking with Jesus Christ himself Throwing away the jug, Photina hastened to tell her fellow Christians about the Messiah Since then, she began to preach Christianity and taught it to her two sons, Victor and Josiah Victor served as a Roman general in Attalia Its ruler, Sebastian, accused Victor and his family of preaching about Christ and suggested that they renounce the faith or confess it secretly The Lord punished Sebastian and he became blind, but when he believed in God and crossed himself, his sight returned When the incident was reported to Emperor Nero, he summoned them for questioning Christians openly declared their faith and refused to renounce it Then Nero ordered the believers to be tortured: they beat their hands with hammers, but an angel of God protected them - the believers did not feel pain Having deprived Sebastian and Photina's two sons of sight, the executioners sent the martyrs to prison, and Photina and her five sisters (Photo, Anastasia, Paraskeva, Photida and Kyriakiia) were transferred to the imperial grounds under the supervision of Domnina, the daughter of Nero Photina's speeches about Christ helped Domnina to believe in God and accept Christianity Together with her, 100 of her maids became Christians After 3 years, the emperor learned about the affairs of Photina and other Christians He was angry at what he saw Moreover, the Christians did not suffer at all; on the contrary, the martyrs’ vision returned, and they continued to bring the word of God to the people The emperor did not even spare his own daughter He ordered the women to cut out their breasts, tear off the skin from their bodies and throw the martyrs into an empty well pit The men had part of their lower legs cut off and also stripped of their skin, hanging them upside down on a cross A couple of days later, everyone was beheaded, and Saint Photina was tied to the tops of two trees leaning towards each other, and their ropes were cut Straightening up, the trees tore the martyr in half