Память святой мученицы Дросиды

By order of Emperor Trajan, 2075 confessors of Christ were daily put to death and their bodies were thrown into indecent and unclean places. At this time, practicing in fulfilling the commandments of God and humbly performing their deeds, some Christian virgins spent their lives in abstinence, and their mentors each time picked up the bodies of the holy martyrs and, anointing them with aromas, wrapped them in clean linen and buried them in their homes. The daughter of Emperor Trajan, Drosida, having learned about this, one night, when all the servants who were with her were in deep sleep, came to these virgins, having precious clothes with her, and asked them to allow her to go with them so that she too could take the honorable body of the holy martyr. Meanwhile, a certain Andrian, Drosida’s fiancé and a close friend of the emperor, gave him the following advice: - Autocratic ruler! They ordered that soldiers be placed to guard the Christians put to death in order to find out who was stealing their bodies. Trajan ordered this advice to be carried out, and the soldiers placed on guard, staying awake all night, seized the five above-mentioned Christian teachers, and with them Trajan’s daughter, Drosida, and when morning came, they brought them all to the emperor. Seeing Drosida, Trajan was horrified and ordered the guards to strictly guard her indoors, hoping that, having repented, she might reform. For the virgin mentors, he ordered to forge a large cauldron and throw them into it and along with them a large amount of copper for alloying, so that the copper would merge with their bodies and they would burn in it. From this copper, he further ordered to forge sacrificial tripods and place them in the bathhouse he had newly built, which, on the feast of Apollo 2076, was to be heated for the first time and opened for the healing of illnesses and rest from the labors of like-minded pagan admirers. When the order of the emperor was fulfilled: the holy martyrs of Christ were burned and the tripods for the sacrifices were forged, they heated the bathhouse and notified the people everywhere, saying: - All those who are favored by the gods who save from troubles and who are devoted to the emperor, enter the bathhouse worthy of curiosity to open it. At this call, people immediately began to converge on the bathhouse, and the first of those who came, rushing to cross the threshold of the entrance doors to the bathhouse, fell to the ground and gave up the ghost. The same thing happened to all those who approached the threshold with him, so that no one could even enter the first doors of the bathhouse. Trajan, having learned about this, called the priests of his pagan gods to him and said to them: -What happened? Did this really come from the sorcery of Christians? “No, king,” answered the priests, “it came from tripods made of copper melted at your command, in which Christian virgins were burned.” Order them to be removed and others installed, and then the work you have planned will be accomplished without hindrance. When this advice of the priests was carried out, Andrian said to the emperor: “Tsar, let me again melt down the removed tripods, make from them five statues of naked virgins, similar to the Christian teachers you executed, and to reproach and desecrate them, place these statues in front of the entrance to your imperial bath. Trajan immediately expressed his consent to this, and the statues were made. When they were placed in their appointed places, Trajan saw in a dream five pure lambs grazing in paradise, and a terrible shepherd tending them, who said to him: - O most lawless and wicked king! Those whose images you planned to expose for reproach, the kind and merciful Shepherd took from you and settled in this place, where in time the pure lamb Drosida, your daughter, will arrive. Waking up, the wicked and lawless Trajan flew into a frenzy, since the holy martyred virgins, even after their death, had disgraced his plans, and ordered two ovens to be lit at opposite ends of the city and heated daily, and an inscription to be made on them expressing his royal command and containing the following: - Men of Galilee 2077, who worship the Crucified One, save yourselves from a great many torments, and us from our labors, make sacrifices to the gods. If you do not want to do this, then let each of you voluntarily, in whatever way he wants, plunge himself into this oven. After such a command came from the emperor and the rumor reached Saint Drosida that Christians, out of faith in Christ and love for Him, were throwing themselves into ovens, she, raising her eyes to heaven, said: - Master Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, if it is Your will that I be saved and avoid the insane worship of my wicked father Trajan, then You Yourself help me to free myself from marriage with the lawless Andrian and ascend to heaven, where those five mentors already reside who confirmed me in Your fear. Put those who guard me into a deep sleep so that I can escape from here. Having said these words, Saint Drosida took off the signs of her royal dignity and quietly left her confinement, so that none of the guards noticed her. While she was going to plunge herself into one of the ovens, she was thinking, saying to herself: - How can I go to God without wearing wedding clothes (that is, without being baptized): after all, I am unclean. But, King of kings, Lord Jesus Christ, for Your sake I left my royal position, so that You would deign me to be at least a gatekeeper in Your Kingdom; baptize me with Your Holy Spirit. And having said this, Saint Drosida took out the myrrh, which she had taken with her from all her treasures, and anointed all her members with it, and then she entered the water of the stream that flowed along her path and baptized herself, uttering the words: - The servant of God Drosida is baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. After this, submitting to a strict fast, she went into hiding for seven days. At this time, some Christians found her and from her stories about themselves they learned all of the above. On the eighth day after baptism, the holy martyr, having prayed, did what she had previously planned and thus departed to the Lord. The Roman Emperor Trajan reigned from 98 to 117. In 99, he renewed the previously existing law that prohibited secret societies and indirectly affected Christians, and in 104 he issued a positive law against them. Starting from this year, the persecution continued until the end of his reign. Apollo or Phoebus, son of Zeus and Latona, was one of the most revered Greco-Roman pagan gods. He was revered as the god of the sun and mental enlightenment, as well as the god of order and public well-being. Christians were called Galileans in mockery. You might be interested in: