THE HOLY MARTYRS MENODORA, METRODORA AND NYMPHODORA
THE HOLY MARTYRS MENODORA, METRODORA AND NYMPHODORA
ST FINIAN, ABBOT
Thy Nativity, O Mother of God,/ has brought joy to all the world;/ for from thee arose the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God,/ Who, having dissolved the curse, has given His blessing,/ and having abolished death, has granted us life eternal.
Troparion of the Virgin Martyrs Tone 1
Let all who rejoice at their triumph honour these three Virgin Martyrs/ who are united to God as sisters and pour forth fair streams of grace:/ Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora who were in all things courageous./ They ever pray to the Trinity for us.
Troparion of St Finian Tone 8
Having been nourished in the faith at Candida Casa, O holy Finian,/ thou didst return to thy native Ireland as the sower of seed which bore fruit an hundred-fold./ In thy love and wisdom intercede with our merciful Creator/ that He will so nourish us with true faith and piety, devoting ourselves only to Him,/ that we may receive the reward of the righteous.
Kontakion of the Feast Tone 4
Joachim and Anna were freed from the reproach of childlessness/ and Adam and Eve from the corruption of death, O Immaculate One, by thy holy nativity./ And thy people, redeemed from the guilt of sin,/ celebrate thy birth by crying to thee:/ The barren woman gives birth to the Mother of God and the nurse of our life.
Kontakion of the Virgin Martyrs Tone 4
You endured suffering for the Trinity/ and as sisters united in spirit you defeated the enemy's guile./ You have entered heaven with the five virgins and with Angels stand before the King.
They were three sisters from some place in Asian Bithynia. Brought up in a Christian spirit, they withdrew from the city into the desert, desiring to lift up their minds to God and free themselves from the illusory world, and thus to live their lives in purity and virginity as true brides of Christ. They gave themselves to fasting, prayer and toil, and God adorned them with the gift of wonderworking. When people began to bring the sick to them for healing, they became known against their will. A certain governor, Fronton, heard of them and brought them to trial. Seeing them, the governor was amazed at their beauty, for, although they were nuns and their bodies were withered, their faces were radiant, illumined by an inner peace and the grace of God. The governor at first flattered them and promised to send them to the Emperor, who would give them in marriage to his nobles, but, when he realised that his flattery and promises were having no effect on these brides of Christ the Lord, he ordered that Menodora be put to torture and her sisters be thrown into prison. After harsh torture, the governor cried to Menodora, all wounded and covered in blood: 'Offer sacrifice to the gods!' To this the holy martyr replied: 'Don't you see that I am doing nothing but offer myself in sacrifice to my God?' When she expired under torture, the governor brought out her two sisters and stood them beside Menodora's dead body, and, pointing to it, urged them to deny Christ. As they remained steadfast, he tortured them to death. At that, a thunderbolt fell from the sky and killed the soul-less Fronton and his servants. Christians buried the bodies of these holy martyrs, who suffered some time between 305 and 311, in the time of Galerius, and entered into rest in the Kingdom of Christ.
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