Mariamne of Persia

Holy Martyr Mariamne of Persia was one of the five virgins Thecla, Martha, Mary, Mariamne and Ennatha, who suffered in Persia in the time of King Shapur II (around 347). Their story is found in a Syriac "Martyrdom".

The virgins lived in the village of Kashaz and had devoted themselves to God under the spiritual direction of the priest Paul. They gave all their property to their spiritual father, who thus became master of great riches and broad lands. Accused of confessing Christianity before the chief priest Narse-⁠Tamshapur, Paul was arrested, and the soldiers took all he had. The five disciples were seized too, and taken in chains to Hazza, near Arbela. The first to stand before Tamshapur was Paul; the chief priest promised to give back his property if he bowed to the sun and drank the blood of idol sacrifice, and he, loving gold more than Christ, did exactly so. Then Tamshapur, who wished to lay hands on his riches, devised something else and said that he would keep his word only if Paul persuaded the five virgins to bow to the sun and to marry.

When Paul told his disciples of his apostasy, they despised him utterly and called him a new Judas. They were given to the torturers, and each received a hundred strokes of the whip, but they confessed Christ with still more zeal. Tamshapur sentenced them to death and ordered Paul to kill them with his own hand, hoping that he would refuse and that there would be an occasion to take his property. But love of money had made his heart harder than stone. He took the sword and killed Thecla, Mariamne, Martha, Mary and Ennatha, who had time to tell him that his sword gave them eternal life and glory, that they went to Christ, their wealth, and that he would not receive the property he sought and would soon be struck by the judgement of God, like the foolish rich man of the Gospel. That very evening Tamshapur ordered Paul strangled in prison and took his wealth.

They are commemorated on 22 June, in the new style. The page gives the commemoration of the martyrs Mariamne and Ennatha on 9 June in the old style, which is 22 June in the new, according to the Greek calendar. Their names are not in today's Menologion of the Russian Church.