Nike of Corinth

Holy Martyr Nike of Corinth, also called Victoria, was one of the seven maidens who suffered together with the Holy Martyr Leonidas, in the persecution of Decius, around the year 250.

Leonidas, born in the Peloponnese, led a choir of women. While the other Christians of the region hid, the choir kept singing hymns and prayers of thanksgiving and confessed the faith openly. A few days before Pascha all of them were arrested in the city of Troezen in Argolis and taken to Corinth before the governor Venustus.

The governor promised Leonidas glory and riches if he would sacrifice to the gods, but he refused calmly. The governor then tried to persuade the maidens that their teacher had yielded, but they were not deceived and declared that they too would offer sacrifice only to the Lord Jesus Christ. Leonidas was flayed alive and his sides were scorched with torches, and the seven maidens, Nike among them, were given the same tortures without renouncing the faith. They declared that, though different in birth and sex, they were one in faith and in way of life.

The governor ordered that they be cast into the sea. They were led along the shore, and Chariessa began to sing as Miriam, the sister of Moses, had done, and the others took up the song. On Holy Saturday they were put on a ship, and when it was about six kilometres out, stones were tied to their necks and their hands bound behind them. Leonidas was thrown in first, then the seven maidens: Chariessa, Nike, Galina, Kallida, Nunechia, Basilissa, Theodora and Irene, according to the list at the head of the page.

Christians found their bodies on the shore, and the place of burial was hallowed by a large church. In 1917, after visions seen in dreams by many believers of those parts, the relics of the eight martyrs were found, and many miracles confirmed them. The place has been a goal of pilgrimage since then. Recent excavations have uncovered near Corinth the ruins of a great church dedicated to Saint Leonidas, as well as those of a fifth-⁠century church in Athens and of another at Clavsion.

They are commemorated on 23 March and 29 April, in the new style.