Antonina

The holy Martyr Antonina was a Christian virgin from the town of Krodamna (called in Greek sources also Kardamos or Krodamos), in Asia Minor. She suffered for Christ in the year 313 together with the holy Martyr Alexander, the soldier who saved her from dishonour. The Church celebrates her on 10 June.

Antonina was beautiful in face and in soul. She lived in self-⁠restraint and purity and gave her strength and her means to the service of the poor and the afflicted.

Her Christian life was denounced to the governor Festus, who arrested and examined her. He demanded that she worship the gods and promised her the honour of a priestess of the goddess Artemis. Antonina firmly confessed Christ and even urged the governor to abandon the worship of idols. Festus had her struck in the face and thrown into prison. There she remained in prayer, neither eating nor drinking, until, as her Life says, the Lord strengthened her and commanded her to take food.

Seeing that he could not move her, and knowing how much she prized her virginity, the governor ordered her to be handed over to dishonour. The Greek synaxarion says that she was taken to a brothel and that at her prayer the house was shaken, so that the women there drove her out themselves. Festus imprisoned her again.

Then a Christian soldier, Alexander, asked to be let in to her, as though he meant to persuade her to do the governor's will. Inside he gave her his cloak and urged her to flee. Antonina was afraid at first, but agreed and went out unrecognised. The soldiers sent by Festus found only Alexander in her place. He answered none of their questions and was tortured and beaten without mercy.

Antonina would not leave her benefactor to suffer alone and presented herself before the governor. The hands of both were cut off, they were smeared with pitch and thrown into a pit of fire. When the fire had died down, the pit was filled with earth so that the Christians could not gather their bones. Their Life says that soon afterwards Festus was struck dumb and died after seven days of grievous suffering.

The martyrs passed to the Lord in 313. Their Life in the Russian tradition gives the day as 3 May, while the Prologues place their memory on 10 June. Their relics were later brought to Constantinople and laid in the monastery called that of Maximinus, where their feast was kept. Their Life was also written at length by Saint Dimitry of Rostov.

In the calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church the holy Martyrs Alexander and Antonina are commemorated on 10 June, the same day as the holy Hieromartyr Timothy, Bishop of Prusa, and the Church sings to them a troparion, a kontakion and a canon.