Kerkyra of Corfu

Holy Martyr Kerkyra of Corfu was the daughter of the Roman governor of the island of Corfu, converted by the apostles Jason and Sosipater, and the first martyr of the island, killed about the year 63. The Orthodox Church commemorates her on 28 April by the old calendar (11 May on the new style).

She is the first Christian martyr of the island of Corfu to give her life for the faith. She is supposed to be the first Christian martyr of royal blood. She accepted Christianity during the time the apostles Jason and Sosipater were on the island, seeing the martyr's death of the first people converted by the apostles, the seven criminals who were in prison with them, and the prison guard.

She was killed by order of her own father, the governor Kerkyllinus, who gave her over to his prefect Carpianus. Thrown into confinement, she survived, converting to the Christian faith a cruel robber and fornicator, Murinus, who had the task of tormenting and dishonouring her as punishment, and so she remained unharmed. Kerkyllinus then ordered the prison in which she was held to be set on fire, after she refused to renounce the Christian faith, but the holy maiden remained alive and unharmed in the midst of the fire. Then by order of her father she was hung from a tree head downward, suffocated by the smoke of a fire lit beneath her and shot with arrows.