Damaris the Athenian

Saint Damaris of Athens is a woman mentioned in a single verse of the Acts of the Apostles (17:34), as one of those who believed when the Apostle Paul preached on the Areopagus in Athens, around the year 55. She is venerated by the Orthodox Church and commemorated on 3 October, together with Dionysius the Areopagite and two of his disciples, who also became martyrs. The record calls her a martyr, but the sources say nothing of her martyrdom; the dates 100 for birth and death have no meaning.

Together with Dionysius the Areopagite, Damaris embraced the Christian faith after Paul's sermon on the Areopagus. The verse reads: Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Since women were usually not present at Areopagus meetings, it has traditionally been assumed that she was a hetaira, that is, a high-⁠status courtesan; modern commentators have proposed that she may have been a follower of the Stoics, who welcomed women among their ranks, which might explain why she accepted the faith so easily, the Stoics' Zeus and the God preached by Paul being very similar, or a foreigner visiting Athens. The Georgian text of Acts makes her the wife of Dionysius. The Greek source calls her the first Athenian woman who believed in Paul's preaching.

The origin of the name is uncertain. Proposals include derivation from the Greek damar, wife, a contraction of the classical name Damarete (the name of a daughter of Theron of Acragas and wife of Gelo), or from damalis, heifer; a Coptic origin has also been considered. A street in Athens was named in her honour, and her service was written by the hymnographer Father Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis. The service includes an apolytikion in the fourth tone, in which the Church of Athens honours Damaris as a divine handmaid, a kontakion and a megalynarion.