Theophila of Nicomedia

Holy Martyr Theophila of Nicomedia received the end of martyrdom in the year 302, in the fire of the church at Nicomedia, together with the abbess Agatha, in the persecution begun by the emperor Maximian.

At the beginning of the fourth century the emperor Maximian (284-305) ordered Christian churches destroyed, service books burned and all Christians stripped of civil rights and offices. The bishop of Nicomedia was Saint Cyril, whose preaching and life spread the faith, so that many of the emperor's officials were secret Christians.

In the emperor's palace lived a pagan priestess, Domna. In Maximian's absence she read the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, and her heart was kindled with desire to know the Christian teaching. With the help of a young Christian woman, Domna went secretly to Bishop Cyril, accompanied by her faithful servant, the eunuch Indes. Cyril instructed them, and then both received holy baptism. Domna began to help the poor, distributing her jewels through Indes and giving away food from the royal table. Learning of the unusual way of life of Domna and Indes, the chief of the eunuchs, who had charge of the royal table, imprisoned them and starved them, but angels strengthened them and they did not suffer. So as not to live any longer among pagans, Domna feigned madness. Then she and Indes were sent out of the palace, and she settled in a convent of virgins, with the abbess Agatha. Soon the abbess dressed her in men's clothing, cut her hair and let her leave.

Meanwhile the emperor returned and ordered a search everywhere for the former priestess Domna. The soldiers sent reached the convent and laid it waste. The sisters were thrown into prisons and given to torment and abuse, but none was defiled. Given over to a brothel, Saint Theophila preserved her virginity by the help of an angel of the Lord, who led her out. Once the emperor made a sacrifice to the pagan gods in the city square. When the sprinkling of the crowd with the blood of the sacrificed animals began, the Christians began to leave. The emperor grew angry, but did not give way to his anger, for the earth shook. Later Maximian entered a church and ordered the Christians to renounce Christ, threatening otherwise to burn the church and kill the Christians. The priest Glycerius answered that Christians would never renounce their faith, whatever torments threatened them. The priest was tortured and then burned.

On the day of the Nativity of Christ in 302, when about twenty thousand Christians had gathered in the cathedral of Nicomedia, the emperor sent a herald who commanded all to come out and sacrifice to the idols, otherwise he would burn the church with those in it. No one would bow to the idols. While the persecutors were preparing to set fire, Bishop Anthimus (commemorated on 3 September), who was serving, baptized all the catechumens and gave communion to all. The twenty thousand died in the flames. Among them were the abbess Agatha and Saint Theophila, saved by a miracle from the brothel. Bishop Anthimus managed to hide.

Saint Theophila is commemorated on 10 January. The page also tells the fate of Domna: hidden in a cave, then returned to the city, she wept at the site of the fire and tended the graves of the martyrs, and when the emperor learned of an unknown youth who honoured the graves, he ordered his head cut off; together with her Euthymius was killed.