Syra of Persia

Holy Martyr Syra of Persia was a virgin, the daughter of a fire-⁠worshipping priest, and received the crown of martyrdom in the year 558, by strangling.

From the house of fire

She lived in the sixth century in Persia, the daughter of a famous fire-⁠worshipping priest of Karkh-⁠Seleucia in Elymais (Abizard). Her father, fearing the influence of Christianity on his daughter, sent her after her mother's death to the city of Fars, to a priestess, to be taught the craft of the priesthood, and Syra became a priestess at the fire temple, with an honourable service before her. One day, in conversation with Christian beggar women, she believed in Christ the Saviour and began to live as a Christian: she learned prayers and psalms, fasted and read Christian books.

Once she fell ill and did not seek healing in sorcery, but came to a Christian church and asked the priest to give her at least a little church dust, hoping to be healed. The priest, knowing her as an idol-⁠worshipper, refused, but Syra, knowing her unworthiness, was not angry, and with faith touched the priest's garment, as the woman with the flow of blood once touched the Saviour's (Matthew 9:20-22), and was healed at once. Her relatives began to suspect that she wished to become a Christian, and her stepmother tricked her, pretending to be a secret Christian herself, and advised her to keep her faith hidden and outwardly to go on serving the fire. Syra wavered, but through a revelation in a dream of the sad fate of her relatives after death and of the bright dwellings of the Christians she resolved and went to the bishop, asking for baptism. The bishop postponed it, fearing to give the priests an occasion for persecution and thinking that Syra, frightened by her father's anger, would turn from Christ; he told her first to confess her faith openly before her relatives.

Her confession

One day, at the morning sacrifice, Syra scattered the sacred fire, which the Persians honoured as a god, overturned the altar and cried out, "I am a Christian, I renounce false gods and believe in the true God." Her father beat her until he was exhausted and threw her into prison; then with tears and caresses he begged her to remain in her former faith, but she stayed unmoved. Then he denounced her to the chief priest, then to the governor and to King Khosrow the Elder. The virgin was long tormented in prison, but the Lord strengthened her. Bribing the guards, she went to the bishop and received holy Baptism. The Lord granted her the gift of working wonders. When the Persians put her in the keeping of Jews, they mocked her: "Where is the tale that the chains fall off you of themselves?" The saint prayed in her heart to the Saviour and at once the chains fell off. So it happened more than once. Weakened by torments, she fell mortally ill and begged the Lord not to let her die of sickness but to grant her the martyr's crown; she was heard and was healed. Seeing her healthy, the jailer and the prison chief wished to dishonour her, but the Lord struck one with sickness and the other with death. The martyr was condemned to strangling.

Martyrdom

The execution was carried out with refined cruelty: from time to time they loosened the rope, asking her whether she would not change her mind and remain alive, but the martyr, barely alive, refused and asked that it be finished sooner. Her body was thrown to the dogs, but they did not touch it, and the Christians buried it. The saint is commemorated on 6 September, in the new style.