Athanasia of Ancyra

Saint Athanasia of Ancyra, a virgin martyr, suffered for Christ at the beginning of the fourth century in the city of Ancyra, together with the holy virgin martyrs Thecusa, Claudia, Phaina, Euphrasia, Matrona, Polaktia, Alexandra and Julia. They are commemorated on 19 November.

They were women of about seventy, their bodies very thin from fasting. They wore modest clothing and veils on their heads, so that their hair could not be seen. Brought up from youth in piety and the fear of God, they had kept purity of body and soul. After a life pleasing to God, they reached old age.

In the persecution under the emperor Diocletian they were seized and put to torture. Since the torments could not shake their faith, they were handed over to dissolute young men to be defiled. Saint Thecusa rebuked one of the young men, and he and his companions, ashamed of their wicked intention, did the holy virgins no harm. Then the cruel governor commanded the martyrs to take part in a pagan festival, but they refused and were drowned in a lake.

Saint Thecusa appeared in a dream to her kinsman, the holy martyr Theodotus (died 303, commemorated on 18/31 May), and commanded him to take the bodies from the bottom of the lake. Walking by night after a lamp that appeared and lit their way, Theodotus and other Christians came to the lake. Then a terrifying vision appeared that frightened the soldiers guarding the bodies of the martyrs, and they fled. A wind arose and drove the water from one side of the lake to the other, so that the bed was laid bare and the holy bodies could be seen. Theodotus took them and buried them with honour. Learning that the bodies had been taken from the lake and buried, the pagans dug up the graves and burned the bodies. The saints suffered in the year 303.