Sophia of Thrace

Venerable Sophia of Aenus (Enos), also called Sophia of Thrace, was a devout woman of eastern Thrace and the mother of six children. The Church remembers her for her love of orphans, widows and the poor, and her hymns call her the mother of orphans. Her feast is on 4 June.

The sources give no exact date. The oldest surviving text about her life was written in the middle Byzantine period, between the ninth and twelfth centuries. She is said to have had pious parents and, on reaching maturity, to have founded a family and borne six children. Even amid the cares and duties of family life she kept the commandments of God and lived in virtue.

After her children died, Sophia took orphaned children into her home and helped widows. She sold her property, gave the money to the poor, and chose to live in the world a life of strict ascetic labour, eating only bread and water.

Her life records one wonderful event. In her house she kept a jar of wine for the needy, and she noticed that however much was drawn from it, it filled again. When she told someone of this miracle and glorified God, the jar became empty. Sophia grieved, thinking that the wine had failed because of her unworthiness, and she increased her ascetic efforts until her health was weakened.

Sensing that her end was near, she received the monastic tonsure and departed to the Lord in peace at the age of 53. The hymns of her service present her as a model of patience and self-⁠denial, as an ornament of married women and mothers, and as an honour to the city of Aenus.