Fausta of Cyzicus

Saint Fausta of Cyzicus, martyr, was a girl of thirteen, of Cyzicus, killed for her Christian faith in the persecution of Diocletian, between 305 and 311. It is said that by her patience in torments she brought her tormentors to faith in Christ. The Catholic Church commemorates her on 20 September. The Russian source does not give the day of commemoration in the Orthodox Church.

She was the daughter of rich and pious parents of Cyzicus and was orphaned early. During the persecutions of Diocletian at Cyzicus, between 305 and 311, Fausta, at the age of thirteen, brought by patience in sufferings to faith in Christ her tormentors: the pagan priest Evilasius, aged eighty, and the eparch Maximus, who threw himself into the cauldron of boiling pitch in which Fausta and Evilasius were, and perished with them.

According to tradition, Evilasius was her father and was ashamed to learn that his daughter was a Christian. He had hung her up but, seeing the courage with which she bore the sufferings, believed in Christ, was nailed down and then boiled in a cauldron. On the same days Saints Evilasius and Maximus are commemorated.