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Euphemia (; 'well-spoken of'), known as Euphemia the All-praised in the Eastern Orthodox Church, was a virgin martyr, who died for her faith at Chalcedon in 303 AD.
According to tradition, Euphemia was Christian martyr for refusing to offer sacrifices to Ares. She was arrested and after suffering various tortures, died in the arena at Chalcedon from a wound sustained from a bear. Her tomb became a site of pilgrimages. She is commemorated on September 16.
Egeria, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381-384 and wrote an account of her travels, relates being shown the site of Euphemia's martyrdom in Chalcedon. Euphemia became a famous saint and stories about her accumulated; the Golden Legend, a collection of hagiography from about 1260, includes an account of her martyrdom.
The governor of Chalcedon, Priscus, had made a decree that all of the inhabitants of the city take part in sacrifices to the deity Ares. Euphemia was discovered with forty-nine other Christians hiding in a house and worshipping God, in defiance of the governor's orders. Because of their refusal to sacrifice, they were for a number of days, and then, all but Euphemia, sent to the Emperor for trial. "Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-praised", Orthodox Church in America Euphemia, the youngest among them, was separated from her companions and subjected to particularly harsh torments, including the breaking wheel, in hopes of breaking her spirit. She was placed in the arena, where lions were sent out to kill her, but they instead licked her wounds. It is believed that she died of wounds from a wild bear in the arena.
This, however, is most likely a forgery, as it is completely absent from literature until appearing in an 11th-century Synaxarium from Constantinople, leading scholars to dismiss it as a post-hoc legend. Moreover, it claims that a certain "tome of the monophysites sic" was found at her feet; however, no such tome has existed, neither Monophysitism nor Miaphysitism, and Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria had not written any tomes of such nature. No letter, acts of a council, apologetic, or other works of any kind reference such a miracle either after Chalcedon, including a letter to Leo of Rome by the council in which it mentions Euphemia (as Chalcedon is her city) without any miracle.
A reliquary believed to contain Euphemia's head and body was situated in the Church of St John of the Collachium, the conventual church of the Knights Hospitaller on Rhodes, by 1479.
St. Euphemia is a highly venerated saint across all Christian traditions, celebrated for her unwavering faith in the face of persecution, which ultimately led to her martyrdom. In the Eastern Orthodox communion, her miracle is also celebrated according to that 11th century account. Churches in her honor have been erected in many places, such as the Church of Holy Martyr Euphemia in Istanbul.
Miracle during the Council of Chalcedon
According to the Synaxarion of Constantinople, a collection of hagiographies, both parties wrote a confession of their faith and placed them on the breast of Saint Euphemia within her tomb. After three days the tomb was opened and the scroll with the Orthodox confession was seen in the right hand of St Euphemia while the scroll of the Monophysites lay at her feet.
Relics
When the persecution of Diocletian ended, the Christians laid Saint Euphemia's reputed relics in a golden sarcophagus, placed within a church that was dedicated to her. Her relics attracted crowds of pilgrims for centuries.
Around the year 620, in the wake of the conquest of Chalcedon by the Persian Empire under Khosrau I in the year 617, the relics of Saint Euphemia were transferred to a new church in Constantinople. There, during the of the iconoclasm, her reliquary was said to have been thrown into the sea, from which it was recovered by the ship-owning brothers Sergios and Sergonos, who belonged to the Orthodox party, and who gave it over to the local bishop who hid them in a secret crypt. The relics were afterwards taken to the Island of Lemnos, and in 796 they were returned to Constantinople. The majority of her relics are still in the Patriarchal Church of St. George, in Istanbul.
Veneration
The primary feast day of Saint Euphemia, celebrated by both Eastern and Western Christians is 16 September in commemoration of her martyrdom. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, her feast day is on Abib 17, corresponding to July 11 in the Gregorian calendar. Additionally, Eastern Orthodox Christians commemorate her alleged miracle at the Council of Chalcedon on July 11.
See also
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