Vriena of Nisibis

Holy Venerable Vriena of Nisibis was abbess of a convent in Nisibis in Mesopotamia and reposed in peace in the year 318.

By one view she was the mother of Saint Phantinus, the wonderworker of Thessalonica, commemorated on the same day, but the years of Phantinus belong to the ninth and tenth centuries. She was abbess of a monastery in Sivapolis (Nisibis), and under her guidance fifty nuns lived. The rule of the monastery was strict, with fasts and long vigils. According to the rule of the first abbess, Platonida, on Fridays all the sisters left their obediences, gathered in the church and prayed and read Holy Scripture from morning to evening.

When the commanders of Emperor Diocletian's troops, Selinus and Lysimachus, came to Sivapolis, the nuns fled the city and hid in the mountains. Only Vriena, Thomais and Phebronia remained in the monastery. Vriena strengthened Phebronia for the struggle of martyrdom, and after her death buried her relics in the monastery, and miracles began to flow from them. Many pilgrims began to come to the monastery. When Saint James, bishop of Nisibis, wished to move the relics of Phebronia to the cathedral, the saint showed by wonderful signs that she wished to stay in the monastery, and the bishop was able to take only a particle, at the prayer of Vriena. Vriena reposed in peace in the year 318, fourteen years after the martyr's death of her disciple. The news of her comes from the Life of the holy martyr Phebronia, her niece and spiritual daughter. In Cyprus, in the village of Mandria in the Paphos area, there is a church dedicated to Venerable Vriena.

The saint is commemorated on 13 March (a movable date, new style), in the Synaxis of All the Venerable Fathers who shone in ascetic labor.