Valeria, Kyriake and Maria of Caesarea

Holy Martyrs Valeria (Kaleria), Kyriake (Kyria) and Maria lived in Caesarea of Palestine and died for Christ at some time between the years 284 and 305. They are commemorated on 6 June by the old calendar, and in the Russian Church on 7 June.

They were inhabitants of Caesarea of Palestine. After they became Christians they settled in a lonely place and spent their time in prayer and fasting, asking that the deceit of idol worship be dispersed and the faith of Christ shine in the whole world, so that the persecutions of Christians would cease. When they were compelled to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, they refused and died after torments.

A short life of the saints is found under 6 June in the Menologion of Basil II (end of the tenth century) and in the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople (tenth century). In some Byzantine calendars, for example the Synaxarion of Peter of 1249, their commemoration is wrongly confused with that of the martyrs Maria and Martha. In Russian translations the names Valeria and Kyria are rendered as Kaleria and Kyriakia.