THE HOLY FEMALE MARTYR SYRA

August 24

From the Prologue

Syra was a kinswoman of St. Mary Golinduc (July 12). She was a Persian from the town of Hirhaselevkosa and the daughter of a eminent fire-worshipping pagan priest. Reared in paganism, the virgin Syra learned of Christ from poor Christian women and her heart became inflamed with love for the Lord. During an illness and while she was yet unbaptized, Syra sought dust from the church of a Christian priest but the priest refused for she was yet unbaptized. Then, with great faith, she touched the vestments of the priest and was healed. That miraculous healing confirmed her even more in the Faith of Christ. But her soul-less father handed her over to harsh tortures during which she received courage and comfort from heavenly visions. She was strangled with a rope by force and then drowned in the year 558 A.D. during the time of the Persian Emperor Chozroesi I at the age of eighteen. And so this holy virgin gloriously finished her earthly journey and took up habitation in the heavenly angelic habitation.