Martha the Persian

Holy Martyr Martha the Persian was the wife of the Holy Martyr Marinus and the mother of Audifax and Abachum. They came to Rome from Persia in the time of the emperor Claudius II (268-270), to venerate the tombs of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. In the year 269 Marinus, Audifax and Abachum were beheaded by imperial order, and Martha was drowned in the river.

At that time the Church of Rome was struck by cruel persecutions and executions. Marinus, with his wife and sons, began to serve the Christians in the prisons and to bury the bodies of the slain martyrs. In one of the prisons they met a prisoner, Quirinus, and served him with love, as one who had borne many torments for Christ. The persecution spread and took in more and more. Then two hundred and sixty Christians, among them the tribune Blastus, condemned to dig earth by the Salarian road, were shot with arrows. Learning of the cruel killing, Marinus and his family, with the presbyter John, began at night to carry away the bodies of the martyrs and bury them in the catacombs. Returning to the prison where Quirinus had been, they did not find him, for he had been executed the day before and his body thrown into the Tiber. Fulfilling their service, Marinus, Martha and their sons took the body of the holy martyr out of the river and buried it. They were received by the Christians who went on serving in secret, headed by Bishop Callistus, and hid among them from the persecutors.

As a crown to the great works of mercy, the holy family was granted to serve the Lord by a martyr's death. The pagans beheaded the confessor Valentine, the presbyter, and Asterius, an imperial official whom he had converted, and with them were arrested and tormented also the ascetics from Persia who lived with them.

The relics of the holy martyrs are in Rome, in the church of Saint John the Hut-⁠dweller, and the relics of Saint Valentine in the church of the holy Martyr Paraskeva. They are commemorated on 19 July, in the new style.