Olympia and Euphrosyne

Holy Monastic Martyrs Olympia and Euphrosyne lived on the island of Lesbos. Olympia was born to devout parents from Constantinople; her father was a priest, and her mother a priest's daughter. For some unknown reason they fled Constantinople and went to the Peloponnese. At the age of ten Olympia lost her parents, and her relatives sent her to Karyes Monastery at Therme on Lesbos, where her aunt Dorothy was the abbess. Originally a convent, it is today Saint Raphael's Monastery. At nineteen Olympia was tonsured a nun, and at twenty-⁠five she succeeded her aunt as abbess.

About ten years later, on 11 May 1235, pirates arrived on Lesbos and went to the monastery, where there were thirty nuns. Some were raped by the pirates, and others fled to the mountains. Abbess Olympia and the elderly nun Euphrosyne were subjected to frightful torments. Euphrosyne was hanged from a tree and burned. Olympia was burned all over her body with torches, and then a red-⁠hot iron rod was passed in one ear and out the other. Finally her tortured body was nailed to a board with twenty nails, and the board was buried with her. Then the pirates went away.

The account of the lives and martyrdom of these two holy women became known in 1959 when, by divine revelation, their relics were found at Therme. Twenty nails were found in Saint Olympia's tomb. Sometimes she has appeared together with Saint Raphael. Saints Olympia and Euphrosyne are commemorated on 11 May (new style; 24 May on the old calendar) and also on Bright Tuesday with Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene.