Chionia

Holy Martyr Chionia suffered at Thessalonica in the year 304, in the time of Diocletian, together with her sisters Agape and Irene.

The three sisters of Thessalonica were burned at the stake in the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. According to the Martyrology of Usuard, Agape and Chionia were first tormented in prison, then thrown into the fire, but the flames did not touch them, and after praying to the Lord they gave up their souls. Irene, after enduring prison, was shot with an arrow by the count Sisinnius, under whom her sisters also suffered.

In the West the commemoration of Agape and Chionia is kept on 1 April, and that of Irene on 5 April; the Orthodox Church commemorates the three sisters on 16 April, in the Menaion calendar. They are saints of the undivided Church.