Ieria of Nisibis

Holy Venerable Ieria of Nisibis was born into a pagan family and was the wife of a Roman senator, but after seven months she was left a widow. In the Assyrian city of Sebapolis she learned that in a convent near Nisibis there struggled the young nun Febronia, known for her strict life. In the guise of a traveller, Ieria visited her and conversed with her all night, learning the Christian faith, and returning home she was baptised and persuaded her parents to do the same.

In the persecution of Diocletian (284-305), most of the nuns of the convent at Nisibis left the convent, hiding from the persecutors, and Saint Febronia appeared at the trial of the cruel official Sedinus and, for confessing Christ, suffered inhuman torments. Saint Ieria fearlessly rebuked the cruelty of the tormentors. The judge ordered her to be seized and tormented too, but then changed his decision, learning that Saint Ieria was the widow of a Roman senator.

Bitterly mourning the martyr's end of her guide, Saint Febronia († about 304, commemorated on 25 June), Ieria grieved that she herself had not been found worthy to suffer for faith in Christ. With tears she begged the abbess Bryenna to receive her in the convent in Febronia's place. Giving all her property to the convent, Venerable Ieria spent there the rest of her days and passed peacefully to God about the year 320.

She is commemorated on 13 March (new style, a movable day), in the Synaxis of All the Venerable Fathers Who Shone in Ascetic Labour.