Women Ascetics of Adrianople

The Women Ascetics of Adrianople are a group of women, sometimes called the forty virgins, who suffered together with their teacher, the deacon Ammon, in the time of the emperor Licinius, around 305.

They lived in Adrianople in Thrace. The governor Babdos arrested them as Christians and urged them to worship idols. Celsina, one of them and the first lady of the city, after a bold confession gathered all of them in her house, together with their teacher, the deacon Ammon, to be strengthened for martyrdom. Ammon took the paper with their names and read them aloud one by one, and then told them to struggle for Christ through martyrdom, for the Lord would sit at the gate of the heavenly kingdom and call them by name to give them the crown of eternal life. At the second interrogation they all confessed their faith firmly. By their prayer the idols were shattered, and the priest of the idols was lifted into the air and, tormented by angels of fire, fell dead. Babdos ordered Ammon hung up, his sides scraped, his wounds burned with lit torches and a bronze helmet heated red-⁠hot placed on his head. Because the saint stayed unharmed, he was taken with his disciples from Beroe (today Stara Zagora in Bulgaria) to Heraclea, to the emperor Licinius. On the way the Lord appeared to them and encouraged them. On reaching the city they went to the place where the relics of Holy Martyr Glyceria (13 May) were laid and spent the night in prayer; the saint appeared to them and said she had long been waiting for them.

At Heraclea they were thrown to the beasts, but these fell asleep and did not touch them. When the soldiers were lighting the fire, they prophesied to Licinius the victory of Constantine the Great, the triumph of Christianity and the end of idol worship. Then, signing themselves with the cross, ten of them leapt gladly into the flames, praising God, who made the fire cool. They died in peace in the pyre; eight were beheaded with their teacher Ammon; the rest the executioners stabbed or had red-⁠hot iron put in their mouths. Their names were preserved in their ancient Martyrdom. They are commemorated with Ammon on 1 September, in the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).