The Holy Martyress Euthalia

Commemorated on March 2

The Holy Martyress Euthalia lived with her mother and brother in the city of Leontina on the island of Sicily. The mother of Euthalia, a pagan, was grievously ill a long while. One time there appeared to her in a dream the Martyrs Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyprian (Comm. 10 May) who told her she would be healed if she believed in Christ. Accepting Baptism together with her daughter, the mother was healed from her infirmity. But Euthalia's pagan brother Sirmianus, having learned of the baptising of his kin, went into a violent rage. The mother succeeded in fleeing, but Saint Euthalia confessed herself a Christian and accepted a martyr's death. After fiercesome torture the saint was beheaded with a sword.