32 Virgin Martyrs

The 32 Virgin Martyrs suffered with Saint Rhipsime and her venerable mentor Gaiane, in Armenia, in the time of the emperor Diocletian (284 to 304), according to the synaxarion in the year 292.

Rhipsime was fair in appearance and modest in conduct (according to others a nun). Because she did not accept Diocletian's proposal to become his wife, she fled with the elder Gaiane, who is said to have been her abbess, to Armenia. The king of Armenia, Tiridates, hearing of Rhipsime's beauty, wanted to take her as his wife too. The pure Rhipsime refused and roused his anger, and he ordered her to be found and arrested. His envoys found her around Ararat, where she was hiding. There the barbarians put out her eyes, cut out her tongue and finally cut her body into small pieces. So Saint Rhipsime gave her pure soul to Christ, the giver of crowns. With her the elder Gaiane, the 32 virgin martyrs and seventy men hiding in those parts suffered terrible tortures. They are commemorated on 30 September, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).