The Holy Martyress Matrona of Soluneia (Thessalonika)
Commemorated on March 27
The Holy Martyress
Matrona of Soluneia (Thessalonika) suffered in the III or IV Century. She
was a slave of the Jewess Pautila, wife of one of the military-commanders of
Soluneia. Pautila forced her slave into apostasy and conversion to Judaism, but
Saint Matrona, having her faith in Christ since her youthful years, still
firmly believed in Christ and went to church secretly unbeknownst to her
vengeful mistress.
One time Pautila,
having learned that Blessed Matrona had been in church, asked: "Why hast
thou not come to our synagogue, but instead did walk to the Christian
church?" Saint Matrona boldly answered: "Because in the Christian
church God is present, but He is gone away from the Jewish synagogue".
Pautila went into a rage and mercilessly beat Saint Matrona, and having tied
her shut her into a dark closet. In the morning Pautila discovered, that Saint
Matrona had been freed of her bonds by an unknown Power. In a rage Pautila beat
the martyress almost to death, then tied her again even more tightly and locked
her in the closet, having sealed the door, so that no one might offer help to
the sufferer. The holy martyress was there over the course of four days without
food or water, and when Pautila opened the door, she again beheld Saint Matrona
out of her bonds standing at prayer. In a fierce rage Pautila began to beat the
holy martyress with a stout cane and, when the saint was barely breathing, the
fierce woman locked her in the room, wherein also the Martyress Matrona gave up
her spirit to God.
The body of the holy
martyress was thrown from the city wall, by order of Pautila. Christians took
up the much-suffered body of the holy martyress and reverently gave it over to
burial. And later on, the bishop of Soluneia, Alexander, built a church in the
name of the holy martyress, in which they put her holy relics, glorified by
miracles.
The judgement of God
soon overtook the tormentor Pautila at that very place, where the body of Saint
Matrona had been throw from the high wall, – she herself stumbled, fell off it
and was smashed, having received her just reward.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.