Daria

Holy Martyr Daria was among the five virgins who buried martyrs in Rome, in the time of Emperor Trajan (98-117), beside Aglaida, Apollinaria, Mamphusa and Thaisia. They are remembered together with the Holy Martyr Drosis, the emperor's daughter. They are commemorated on 4 April.

The persecution of Trajan

Trajan, a fierce persecutor of Christians, renewed in 99 an older law that banned secret societies and touched Christians indirectly, and in 104 issued a special law against them. From then the persecution lasted until the end of his reign. The bodies of slain Christians often remained unburied, to frighten the others. The five virgins took on themselves the labour of burying Christians: they carried the bodies of the martyrs away secretly, anointed them with perfumes, wrapped them in shrouds and buried them. Learning of it, the emperor's daughter, Drosis, a secret Christian but not yet baptised, asked them to take her with them. On the advice of her fiancé, the official Hadrian, a guard was set beside the bodies to seize those who buried them. On the very first night Drosis and the five virgins were seized. Recognising his daughter among the prisoners, Trajan ordered her kept apart, in the hope that she would think better of it. The other virgins were condemned to be burned in a copper-⁠smelting furnace. They accepted death with courage and were found worthy of the crowns of martyrdom. From copper mixed with the ashes of the martyrs burned in the furnace tripods were made for a new bath of Trajan. But as long as the tripods stood in the bath, no one could enter: whoever crossed the threshold fell dead. When the priests understood why, they advised that the tripods be removed.

The statues and the furnaces

Then Hadrian proposed to the emperor to melt down the tripods and make from them five statues of naked virgins, resembling the slain martyrs, and to set them up, for shame, before the entrance of the imperial bath. Trajan agreed. After the statues were set up, the emperor saw in a dream five pure lambs grazing in paradise, and a shepherd who told him that those whose images he had meant to set up for shame, the Good and Merciful Shepherd had taken from him and settled there, where in time the pure lamb Drosis, his daughter, would also come. Awakening, Trajan flew into a rage and ordered two huge furnaces heated every day. On the furnaces the royal order was posted: men of Galilee, who bow to the Crucified, spare yourselves the multitude of torments and us the labour, offer sacrifice to the gods; and if you will not, let each of you cast himself of his own will into the furnace, as he wishes. Many Christians went voluntarily to the torments.

The baptism and martyrdom of Drosis

Learning of it, Saint Drosis resolved also to accept death for Christ. In prison she prayed that the Lord would help her to leave the prison unnoticed, and God heard her prayer: the guards fell asleep. Reaching freedom, she set out for the furnace, but reflected that she did not have the wedding garment, that is, was not baptised. She asked the Saviour to baptise her Himself with the Holy Spirit. Praying, she anointed her body with the holy chrism she had taken with her and, immersing herself three times in water, said: the servant of God Drosis is baptised in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For seven days she hid, in fasting and prayer. Then the Christians found her and learned from her what had happened. On the eighth day the Holy Martyr Drosis went to the heated furnace and cast herself into the fire.