Alexandra of Amisus

Holy Martyr Alexandra lived in the city of Amisus (today Samsun) in Asia Minor and died a martyr in the year 310, together with Claudia and other Christian women, during a persecution by an emperor whom the sources call Maximian. The Orthodox Church commemorates them on 20 March, by the old calendar.

According to tradition, she and Claudia were brought to trial before the governor of the city and openly confessed that they were Christians. They called the judge cruel and merciless, and for this, in the account preserved by Saint Demetrius of Rostov, they were first stripped and beaten with rods.

Still harsher torments were then added, the cutting of their breasts and the scraping of their bodies after they had been hung up. At last they were thrown into a furnace glowing with fire, where they gave up their souls into the hands of the Lord.

The commemoration of 20 March includes, besides Alexandra and Claudia, the other women martyrs of Amisus who suffered with them for Christ.