Chionia of Aquileia

Holy Martyr Chionia of Aquileia, with her sisters Agape and Irene, suffered for Christ at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century, in the persecution of Diocletian. Their names mean Snow (Chionia), Peace (Irene) and Love (Agape).

The life according to church tradition

The three sisters lived near the Italian city of Aquileia. They were left orphans while young. They led a pious life, rejecting the proposals of many suitors. Their spiritual father was the priest Zeno, to whom it was revealed in a vision that he would soon die and that the virgins would be taken to torment. The same revelation was received by Holy Great Martyr Anastasia († 304), called the Deliverer from Potions because she fearlessly visited imprisoned Christians, encouraged them and helped them. Anastasia hurried to the sisters and urged them to stand manfully for Christ. Soon what had been foretold came to pass: the priest Zeno died, and the three virgins were seized and sent for judgment to Emperor Diocletian.

Seeing the beautiful sisters, the emperor proposed that they renounce Christ, promising them noble husbands from his retinue. They answered that they had one heavenly Bridegroom, Christ, for faith in whom they were ready to suffer. Neither the elder ones nor the youngest would yield. They called the pagan gods idols made by human hands and preached faith in the true God. By order of Diocletian, who was leaving for Macedonia, the sisters were taken there and handed over to the judgment of the governor Dulcitius.

Seeing the beauty of the saints, he was inflamed with unclean passion. He took them into custody and sent word that they would be free if they fulfilled his wish. But the saints answered that they were ready to die for their heavenly Bridegroom. Then Dulcitius decided to take them by force in secret, at night. When the sisters rose at night to pray and praise the Lord, he crept to the door and wished to enter. An invisible power struck him, he lost his mind and fled; unable to find the way out, he stumbled into the kitchen, among pots, pans and cauldrons, and was covered all over with soot. The servants and soldiers hardly recognised him. Seeing himself in a mirror, he thought the saints had bewitched him and resolved to take revenge. At the trial he ordered the saints to be stripped, but the soldiers, however hard they tried, could not: the clothes seemed fastened to the bodies of the virgins. During the trial Dulcitius suddenly fell asleep and no one could wake him, but as soon as he was carried into the house, he woke.

Learning what had happened, Diocletian was angry with Dulcitius and gave the virgins to the judge Sisinnius. He began the inquiry with the youngest, Irene; seeing her unmoved, he sent her to prison and tried to force Chionia and Agape to renounce. But they also could not be turned from Christ, and Sisinnius ordered Agape and Chionia burned. The sisters, hearing the sentence, thanked the Lord for the crowns of martyrdom. In the fire Agape and Chionia departed to the Lord with prayer. When the fire died down, all saw that the bodies of the martyrs and their clothes had not been touched by fire, and their faces were beautiful and calm, like those of people asleep in quiet sleep.

The next day Sisinnius ordered Saint Irene to be brought to trial. He frightened her with the fate of her elder sisters, urged her to renounce Christ, then threatened to give her over to shame in a brothel. The holy martyr answered that her body might be given to violent shame, but her soul would not be defiled by renouncing Christ. When Sisinnius's soldiers led her toward the brothel, two shining soldiers overtook them and said: Your master Sisinnius commands you to take the maiden to a high mountain and leave her there, then come to him and report that you have carried out the order. The soldiers did so. When they reported it to Sisinnius, he was furious, for he had given no such order. The shining soldiers were angels of God, who had saved the holy martyr from shame. Sisinnius went with a band of soldiers toward the mountain and saw Irene on the summit. He searched long for the way to the summit, without finding it. Then one of the soldiers wounded the saint with an arrow. The martyr cried out to Sisinnius: I laugh at your powerless malice and go pure and undefiled to my Lord Jesus Christ. Giving thanks to the Lord, she lay down on the ground and gave up her spirit to God on the eve of Holy Pascha (304). Holy Great Martyr Anastasia learned of the death of the sisters and buried them with honour.

The acts of martyrdom

The ancient acts of martyrdom have also been preserved, in a single manuscript of the year 916 (Cod. Vat. gr. 1660), which differ in some details. According to them, three women from Thessalonica, praised by Saint Paul for its faith and love, in the persecution of Maximian left their kin, wealth and homeland and fled to a high mountain, where they prayed. There they were seized. One, the keeper of the purity of baptism, was called Chionia (Snow), another, with the gift of peace, Irene (Peace), and she who had perfection in exhortation and love of God and neighbour, Agape (Love). The governor Dulcitius tried seven women and men who had refused to taste of the holy sacrifices: Agatho, Irene, Agape, Chionia, Cassia, Philippa and Eutychia. Each confessed that she was a Christian and did not wish to destroy her conscience. Eutychia, who was with child, was kept in prison. Asked whether they had any Christian writings, parchments or books, they said that the emperors had taken them all. Agape and Chionia were condemned to burning; Agatho, Irene, Cassia, Philippa and Eutychia, because of their youth, were thrown into prison. The next day Irene was brought again to trial; the governor showed her that she had nevertheless kept parchments and books and had denied it. She answered that she had kept them out of obedience to God, that no one else had known of them, and that in the past year she had hidden in the mountains, under the open sky, where God had given them bread. Dulcitius ordered her to be placed naked in a brothel, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit no one touched her, not even with a word. Then she was condemned to be burned alive and, singing psalms, threw herself into the pyre, on the kalends of April of the year 304 (1 April).

The three sisters are commemorated on 29 April (new style).