Thekla came from the Iconium city in Turkey around A.D. 16, making her a contemporary of the apostles of Christ. At age 18, Saints Paul the Apostle and Saint Barnabas came to her town to preach, but Thekla was forbidden to go listen to them speak. Sitting at her window, however, she found that she could hear Saint Paul’s sermons, and listened to him enraptured for three days.

Though her family was pagan, Thekla felt a stirring of faith, and was incredibly impressed with Saint Paul. At the same time, Saint Paul had made quite the impression on the government of Iconium, and he was thrown into jail. Sneaking away from her parents, and bribing the guards with some gold bracelets, she sat at Saint Paul’s feet and listened further as he spoke the Good News to her.

Thekla decided after hearing Paul’s words to remain pure as a bride of Christ. Her decision to forgo marriage to be bonded to the Lord infuriated her wealthy and worldly parents, who demanded that the governor punish her. It’s hard to imagine not just dealing with the stress that comes from defying your parents, but when they call the authorities on you and demand your corporal punishment, it’s a severe and intense experience. It does, however, lay the groundwork for some of the amazing feats of grace performed by Thekla as her relationship to Christ deepened.

Thekla’s first punishment was a trial by fire. The governor lit a fire at her feet, tied her to a stake, and waited for the torture to begin. Instantly, a thunderstorm blew up and extinguished the flames. Flummoxed, the governor had her untied and banished her from Iconium.

This would be incredible enough, and would most likely be qualifying grounds for Thekla’s sainthood. But it still doesn’t end there.

Thekla left the city of Iconium and immediately set out to find her mentor, Saint Paul. Upon meeting up with him, she requested that he baptize her. To her surprise (and to mine), Saint Paul REFUSED to baptize her at that time, saying that it would be done at God’s will at the appropriate time.

This reminds me of when I approached Father Andrew to tell him I was ready to convert fully into Orthodoxy. Though I felt that I was ready, Father made me be patient, and I had to wait almost a full year to be Chrismated. I learned a lot of lessons in that year, about myself, and my faith, and what I really wanted out of my faith. I still have a lot to learn. There is no rush in faith; it is comforting to know that someone as zealous and holy as Thekla was made to wait as well!

Thekla set off to Antioch with Saint Paul to continue preaching. A young, attractive woman traveling alone was irresistible to to a local nobleman, who entreated Thekla with worldly seduction. Defying him, Thekla once again infuriated the local government with her choice of remaining a devoted virgin rather than giving into the whims and lusts of the men in power (hear hear Thekla!) And once again, she was sentenced to corporal punishment for her defiance.

Thekla clearly ticked off the powers that be in Antioch, because she was sentenced to death. Historically, young women who did not behave like the willing property of men were not quite as respected as they are today. Thekla asked that her virginity be preserved to death, a request that was actually granted of her.

Here’s where Thekla’s story continues to make you go “wow”. First she was sentenced to death by lionness. When the lionness was released into the arena, however, it calmly laid at her feet like a kitten. Next, they sent in a bear to maul her, and to their surprise the lionness rose up and killed the bear. Thekla remained unscathed. Thirdly, a larger, more violent lion was released into the arena, but the lionness rose up again and fought the lion; both lions perished, but again, Thekla remained calm and continued to pray.

Frustrated and desperate, the executioners released a whole flotilla of wild animals into Thekla’s arena. Thekla prayed for courage, and then noticed a nearby tank of water filled with aquatic animals. Diving into the water, Thekla also asked that God now baptize her (Saint Paul was RIGHT!) and protect her from the beasts.

Thekla was removed from the water and tied to ropes which were then tied to two bulls. The bulls were enraged, and then prompted to run in opposite directions in the hopes of tearing her in half. But Thekla slipped out of the ropes and again was spared. The authorities had to give up. They tried fire, water, lions, bears, bulls and a whole army of ravenous beasts - but Thekla could not be killed. Throwing their hands up, and declaring rare defeat, the Antiochian authorities released her to the home of Tryphaena.

Thekla converted her friend Tryphaena, who gave Thekla a small fortune of gold and jewels so she might live comfortably as she continued to wander. However, once Thekla left the home of Tryphaena, she met up once more with her mentor Paul, and told him the story of her near martyrdom. Saint Paul blessed her baptism, and gave her his blessing to live the remaineder of her life as an ascetic. She gave Saint Paul the jewels that Tryphaena gave her, and asked that they be distributed to the poor. With that, Thekla went off to the mountains where she lived until the old age of 90, devoting her life to prayer, solitude, and peace.

Though Thekla was not actually killed for her faith, and in fact felt very little pain (if any) during her many torture attempts, she is considered a Protomartyr in the Orthodox faith. For her many conversions over her many years of peaceful asceticism, she is also considered Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Thekla is just amazing. A friend of Saint Paul the Apostle, a rebellious teenager and young adult devoted to God, defying not just the will of her pagan parents, but the patronistic government of Iconium and Antioch, and one of the first protomartyrs for Christ…she embodies everything that makes her a truly Awesome woman.

Holy Saint Thekla, pray unto God for us!

O Glorious Thekla, companion of Paul the divine, thou wast inflamed with the love of thy Creator. By the teaching of the divine Preacher thou didst despise the passing earthly pleasures and offered thyself to God as an acceptable and pleasing sacrifice, disregarding all suffering. Intercede with Christ, thy Bridegroom, to grant us his great mercy.

Many women who are highly revered by the Orthodox church have done some incredibly and surprising things. Today I’m introducing Saint Marina, the patron saint of one of our Generation Orthodox Podcast contributors. Marina, our colleague on the show, shared her personal story of how Saint Marina found her and why she chose her as her patron and namesake. I’d like to go into her story a little bit more to show our readers that sometimes, female saints in the Orthodox church get a little radical.

Saint Marina’s mother died when she was born, and she was raised by her pagan father in Antioch. However, since her mother had died, her father sought assistance from a Christian woman to help raise Marina. As she got older, Marina told her father that she too would like to be a Christian, and that she would never marry.

Marina’s father was a very wealthy man, and according to the story, Marina was also a very lovely woman. Her father was hoping to marry her to the Imperial Governor, and did his best to try to convince her that she should marry the most powerful man in the province. Marina still refused, quote: “Have no vain hope for me, o governor, that I might cower before any number of torments. “Nothing will
separate
me from
Christ” - Saint Marina“Nothing will separate me from Christ” - Saint Marina– neither affliction, famine, fire, sword, nor any harsh tribulation – not even a violent and very painful death. Think not that you will entice me the honors, gold or other wealth, because all these things are perishable and temporal.”

This kiss-off infuriated the Imperial Governor. Why wouldn’t this motherless girl want to marry him, guaranteeing a life of every comfort and luxury? The insult was pretty powerful, and the Imperial Governor wasn’t quite gracious in his rejection. He ordered Marina tortured, and her beauty was disfigured. The more she was tortured, the more she prayed. Quote: “I do not sorrow in this transient life. Readily I give my body to death, for my deathless God and Master, as he, the sinless One, for my love, was crucified.”

Marina was so tough in her love for Christ that she still refused to back down in the throes of painful torture. In fact, she thanked God for counting her worthy of such attention in His name. A demon, curious as to why this young girl hadn’t backed down from this torture, tried to afflict the woman himself.

This part of the story is what really impresses me. When human torture isn’t enough to break you, the devil seems to get desperate and makes an uncharacteristic direct assault on God’s children. The demon, disguised in a human-like form, came upon Marina in her jail cell to confront her, and Marina – in keeping with what should be clear by now is her radical personality – grabs a hammer and beats the demon to the ground.

I want to let that one sink in for a bit. She’s already been shunned by her father, she’s flatly rejected a life of comfort with a man who would be her husband, and she’s been tortured by that man because of her choice to follow God and not be married. Most people, having come from a string of such difficult and sometimes demoralizing occurrences, might just give up at that point. Sometimes its just easy to go along with the flow. Her life would have been a LOT easier had she just said “Alright Dad, I’ll marry the governor.” She willingly chose her fate and went to it unfailingly.

And then she beat up a demon with a hammer. I also forgot to mention that Marina was 15 years old.

Upon defeating the demon, Marina’s wounds were healed, which drove the governor insane. Driven by his madness, he ordered Marina tortured further – first by fire, then by water. When nothing seemed to touch her, he finally ordered her decapitated. She is then martyred at the age of 15.

The truth about so many saints, both men and women, is that their sainthood comes from a very difficult and painful end to their lives. Most of us modern Christians will not be tortured and killed for our adherence to our faith. But in many ways, we put up with public ridicule, misunderstanding, unflattering stereotypes and insults, all because people think they know all about us just because of our faith.

Remember those saints who gave it all because of their love. Saints like Marina, who physically beat up demons with hammers and brute strength, emboldened by their love of God and the power of their faith. Marina’s confidence in her faith is inspiring, and I pray to myself that I be influenced and inspired by the radical life of this fascinating saint.

Tags: Saint, Marina,, St., Marina,, Orthodox,, Orthodox, Church,, Generation, Orthodox, Podcast,, Antioch,, Christ,, Torture,, Demon,, Hitting, Demon,, Beat, demon,, hammer

This blog is extremely personal and emotional for me to write, but that’s where we find God is most present – our personal lives. I’m focusing today on Saint Martha, a beautiful saint whose chief saintly act was that of Love.

Saint Martha first enters into the life of Christ when she welcomes Jesus into her home. Martha’s sibling Mary sits and listens to Jesus while he speaks, while Martha busies herself with food and drink, and the hospitality that was so important in the Middle East during that time. Martha works and works, while Mary just sits and listens to Christ, which naturally exasperates Martha. I have siblings; I know what its like when you don’t feel that one of them is pulling their weight. Jesus, however, reminds Martha that the important service she can give to God is to listen, rather than be distracted with her busy ways. It’s a humbling lesson for Martha, but she accepts the message with grace and love.

Saint Martha is someone I’m personally very close with. She intervened when my parents were struggling to conceive me, and I feel is therefore partially responsible for my existence. After six years of extremely disappointing childlessness, my mother began to pray to Saint Martha, the patient servant to Christ, to conceive. Saint Martha answered her prayers, and within months I was growing happily in my mom’s womb. My given middle name is Marta, to honor the saint who intervened to God on my parent’s behalf to give them the gift of a child, their only daughter, and the first of an eventual family of five children! Just goes to show you that even when doctors say “You will probably never a child, and never more than one” – you don’t know what gifts you can be granted if God has his way with things (remember Joachim and Anna, after all…)

In simply being born, I am therefore touched by Saint Martha. Just in the past few weeks, however, I was once again brought into prayer with my first Saint, and this time through death. In the last week of October my youngest brother, himself named after the Archangel Saint Michael, died unexpectedly. He hadn’t even graduated high school yet. My grief is ongoing, and I pray daily for the strength for my family and myself to continue to honor his memory while coping with this indescribable loss.

I wanted to do a reading for his funeral, and I spent an afternoon looking through various appropriate Bible passages that I could speak – something to give comfort, something to give faith, and to be completely honest, something that meant something to ME. I thought, if I am going to read at the most difficult time in my life, I want it to be something I can forever carry in my heart as my prayer to him. It was then that I read John 11:20 – 27. I’ll retranscribe it here, because to paraphrase is pointless given how powerful this Gospel passage was to me.

20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ,^[b] the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

What could I say that Saint Martha had not already said, directly to Jesus, and what better comfort could I hear than Jesus’ own words that my brother will rise again?

I was honored and humbled when the priest in the Catholic Church that held my brother’s funeral allowed me to read this passage, as it is a Gospel. In the Catholic Church, the Gospel is proclaimed by the priest, but for my brother, I was granted the grace and honor to proclaim Martha and Jesus’ words to my family, our community, myself, and to my beautiful brother. I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

There really isn’t much more to say. Female Saints do powerful things – they hit demons with hammers, they cure the sick, they survive all attempts at martyrdom, they convert thousands upon thousands to Christianity.

And sometimes, a Saint does something as simple as serve Jesus food and drink in her home, and love her brother. We do not need to be great people or powerful people to be saintly and beautiful in the eyes of God. Saint Martha is proof that one of the most powerful acts one can perform is simply to love.

When I was chrismated on Pentecost 2007, I took on the name of my patron saint. I chose Photina, the Latin version of the name Photini (Russian: Sveltana), the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4:5-42. I really wish I could describe what happened to my heart when I read her story, and what continues to happen the more I learn about her. For personal reasons, she is very important to me and I feel as if we have a connection that I continue to be amazed by.

Photina was an exile from the Samaritan community, forced to live among strangers, and lead by what all accounts the Bible refers to as “a sinful life”, meaning that among things, she was of initimate knowledge of at least six men in the community (John 4:18). Her story plays out as follows: During the hottest time of the day, Photina (Biblically known as the Samaritan Woman) goes to the well to gather water. She had to go at the hottest time of the day, when very few people would venture to the well, to avoid the harassment and judgement of other women who had the daily chore of gathering the day’s water.

At that time, Jesus approaches her and requests a drink of water. Jesus is alone, as his disciples have gone to buy food. Now, just imagine this scene - here is the Son of God, the Christ - but still a man - approaching a well-known loose woman in a public place. It is just the two of them. Anyone seeing them would be scandalized, and in fact his disciples are surprised on their return to find him talking with her. But let’s go back to that conversation that Jesus and Photina had at that well.

Jesus approaches Photina, and asks her for water. Instead of obeying Jesus, Photina shoots a question back at Jesus: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9). Pretty gutsy! Jesus speaks to Photina thusly, saying, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Photina asks for this living water, and in doing so, Jesus reveals his divinity to her. The love of God, through his son Jesus Christ, was so powerful that Photina abandons her water jug at the well on the spot, and runs into town to spread the word. In doing so, the other Samaritan exiles in the town come to Jesus, and in the final passage of John 4:42, it says “They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

This amazing Samaritan woman was baptized by the disciples on Pentecost, officially taking on the name Photini, meaning “the enlightened one.” Following her baptism, Photini dedicated her life to preaching the word of God. It became an entire family affair; Photini’s gift of ministry was passed on to her seven children - five daughers (Anatoli, Photo, Photes, Paraskevi, and Kyriaki) and her two sons, Victor (later named Photinos) and Joseph. Through her preaching, she and her family brought innumerable people to life in Christ. Following the imprisonment and torture of her son Victor (who refused to participate in anti-Christian military measures) Photina decided to preach directly to the vehemently anti-Christian Emperor Nero.

Though Nero was impressed with Photina’s eloquence and passion, he still disliked the fact that she was a Christian. Photina and her family were imprisoned and tortured for two years before she was received into the Lord’s hands. Through it all, her faith in her beloved Christ Jesus did not waver. Photina may have met Jesus by drawing well water, but because of his gift of living water she was able to make an incredible contribution to the growth of Christianity.

Photini’s life of love for Christ, her love for her family, her martyrdom and her message have made her Equal-to-the-Apostles in Orthodoxy, and we celebrate her on both February 26th and March 30th on the Orthodox calendar.

I don’t know about you, but every time I read her story I am filled with such admiration, love, and inspiration. Photini not only had the gift of preaching, bringing her message to thousands, but she had the honor of speaking to our Lord Jesus Christ - looking at his face, hearing his voice, perhaps even touching his hand, his arm, his robe…if ONLY I could have been Photini back then!

I look at my life - a 27 year old woman convert, living in this materialistic, hedonistic world, trying to do the best I can. I’ve been an outcast myself. And believe me - converting to Orthodox Christianity doesn’t exactly make you MORE popular in our society, let me tell you. It couldn’t have been that popular in Photini’s time either; with Nero’s army running around imprisoning and killing Christians, her unflailing loyalty and determination to preach his love is something we have to understand didn’t just make her unpopular among many social circles, but also put her and her entire family at risk! That’s some powerful love for God!

Photini is an amazing inspiration. To me, she is one of the most glorious women in our church history. I’m thankful every single day that she is my patron saint and that I get to revere her icon in my home. It’s my daily reminder that while at first I thought that I chose her… God works within us in ways we may not always understand, and perhaps she actually chose me.

Thou wast illumined by the Holy Spirit and refreshed by the streams of Christ the Saviour. Having drunk the Water of Salvation thou didst give copiously to the thirsty. O holy Great Martyr Photini, Equal-to-the Apostles, entreat Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

During the second podcast of Generation Orthodox, the discussion turned towards woman sainthood in the Orthodox church. I made the incorrect statement that I felt “limited” in chosing a patron saint for my Chrismation, and after a very lively discussion I was approached about writing a weekly blog about the female saints in Orthodoxy. Not because I know a lot about them, but because I could probably learn a thing or two, and my learnings might be of interest to others who want to know more about these amazing women honored by our church.

Truly, not enough can be said about the importance of women to the Orthodox church. Women are held in high regard, honored and revered, celebrated and exalted. The Mother of our Lord God, Jesus Christ, the Theotokos, is the “ultimate woman”, and her choice to honor God’s call to bring His human son to the rest of us mere mortals shows the love that God has for the feminine faithful. Following the footsteps of the ultimate woman is no easy task, but from the sheer number of saints, martyrs, and other venerated women in the Orthodox Church, it is clear that God’s calling is one heard by many! Thank God for that!

Marina mentioned in the Generation Orthodox podcast that it is a woman’s job to “raise saints”. What a fantastic concept, and very apt. Women have unique roles, both on earth and in heavenly endeavors. Women alone can be mothers; only a woman could be the Mother of God! Yet women have also suffered martyrdom, torture, have cured the sick, bound and beaten devils with their own hands, spread the word of God, and earned the honor of being Equal to the Apostles. I am therefore incredibly excited to highlight important women in Orthodoxy through this blog.

This blog is as much of a learning experience for me as I hope it can be for others, and I encourage your comments, feedback and suggestions. It is my goal to highlight a different woman saint every week, in no particular order, though I will try to follow the Calendar of feasts and fasts when researching and writing on my saint of the week. To kickstart the blog, however, my first post will be on my patron saint, Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:5-42. Watch this space for updates, new blogs, and perhaps a new look at some incredible, inspiring, awesome women in Orthodoxy.