Страдание святой мученицы Фервуфы

After the martyrdom of the Persian bishop Saint Simeon, which he suffered at the hands of King Sapor 2387, two of his sisters remained alive: one was a girl named Fervuf, and the other was a widow and, in addition, one slave. The holy virgin Fervuf was still very young and distinguished by her extraordinary beauty. Hearing about her beauty, the queen of Persia, the wife of Sapor, ordered her to be brought to her. So, after a year had passed since the murder of the holy Bishop Simeon, the royal servants brought the holy virgin Fervutha, along with her sister and slave, to the queen. Having seen with her own eyes the wonderful beauty of Fervuf, the queen addressed her with the following words: - With your beauty, maiden, you should be a mistress over many people Saint Fervuf answered her: - I have a Bridegroom - Christ, for Whom my brother suffered; I can’t even think about another groom! Without asking Fervuf about anything else, the queen ordered her, along with her sister and her slave, to remain in her royal palace for the time being. The next morning the queen suddenly fell ill. In order to cure her, Persian magicians came to her palace 2388. One of these magicians, seeing the most beautiful Fervuf in the queen’s chambers, was struck by her beauty; Soon after, leaving the queen, the sorcerer sent to the holy virgin to say the following: “If you want to be my wife, then I will ask the queen to set you free, and you will have great wealth.” Saint Fervuf answered him: – Being a Christian, I cannot marry a pagan. The sorcerer, captivated by the beauty of Fervuf, was very ashamed and angry at this answer. Appearing to King Sapor, he told him: “The queen’s illness is not accidental: she was given some kind of poison. In the queen’s chambers are two Christian sisters, whose brother, the Christian bishop Simeon, was killed by your command. There is no doubt that the sisters of the murdered bishop living in the palace, out of anger at you, brought poison to your queen. The king immediately ordered the sisters to be brought in for questioning. When all three women - Saint Fervuf, her sister and the slave - were brought into the royal chamber, then, by order of the king, the chief of the Magi, Mavptis, together with two other dignitaries, came out to them for questioning. When these three judges arrived and sat down in their places, the three women mentioned were brought before them for questioning. As soon as the said judges noticed the extraordinary beauty of Saint Fervuf, they all burned with lust for her, while at the same time hiding their evil thoughts from each other. After that, the judges asked the women brought in: – Why did you poison the queen, the ruler of the universe? For this act you deserve to die! “Why,” answered Saint Fervuf on behalf of all the women, “has Satan put such an unjust thought in your heart and why do you want to unfairly dishonor us?” If you thirst for our blood, then there is no one who would forbid you to drink it. If you want to kill us, then nothing prevents this: after all, you daily defile your hands in this. As Christians, we die for Christ our God, without renouncing Him, because He is our life; as it is prescribed for us to worship and serve the One God, so we will do. It is also written in our books that a sorcerer and a sorcerer should not live, but should die at the hands of their own fellow tribesmen (Ex. 22:18; Lev. 20:6). How could we prepare poison for anyone, knowing that such an act is no less a crime than if someone renounced our God, because both of these sins are equally punishable by death? While Saint Fervuf was saying this, the judges listened to her with pleasure, marveling at her beauty and wisdom, and felt powerless to object to her words. Each of them thought to himself: “I will ask the king to free these women from death, and I will take this girl as my wife.” And only Mavptis could hardly find himself to say: “If the law forbids you to perform witchcraft, then nevertheless you could do it out of revenge for the death of your brother.” Saint Ferwofa responded to this: “It’s true that our brother suffered from you; but if we, in retribution for his death, wished you death, then we would have ruined our lives before our God; if you, burning with rage, killed our brother, nevertheless he is alive and rejoices with Christ in His Heavenly Kingdom; in comparison with this Kingdom, yours are nothing! When the saint uttered these words, the princes ordered all the women to be taken to prison. Early the next morning, the chief of the Magi, Mavptis, secretly sent his servant to the prison to Saint Fervutha, instructing him to say the following: “Now, I’m ready to beg the king so that you and those who are with you remain alive, just agree to be my wife.” The holy virgin boldly answered this: – The enemy of God and all truth! Shut your mouth and dare not speak such ungodly words to me anymore! I can't listen to them anymore! What you want will never happen! Once and forever I was united with my Lord Jesus Christ, for whose sake I preserve my virginity and for whose sake I try to keep my faith pure. He alone, free from sin, is able to free me from your wicked hands and can deliver me from the intrigues that you arrange for me. I am not afraid of death and I am not afraid of blood. The path along which you want to lead me will lead me to my beloved brother, the holy Bishop Simeon. There I will find consolation in my sorrows and sorrows, which I feel especially strongly after his death. Thus, the holy bride of Christ, Fervuf, boldly drove away the man sent to her by Mavptis, and made Mavptis himself feel ashamed. Saint Fervuf acted in a similar manner with the other two judges, captivated by her beauty. Each of them also secretly sent their ambassadors to her in prison, tempting Saint Fervuf to marry him; but all were unsuccessful and were put to shame by the saint. After all three judges noticed each other’s passion for the holy virgin, then, seeing the complete failure of their attempts to take possession of her, they decided at all costs to destroy this holy virgin, as well as those women who were with her. For this purpose, they went to the king and informed him that these three women were Christians - sorceresses and sorceresses, and therefore worthy of death. The king said that if they wanted to stay alive, they must worship the sun. Being again presented for trial by the same three judges mentioned above, the holy martyrs, having heard the royal command to bow to the sun, answered: – We worship God, the Creator of heaven and earth; to the sun, the creation of our God, we cannot give the same honors that we give to God. None of your threats will force us to abandon our love for our Lord and God Jesus Christ. While the holy women were saying these words, Mauptis and the other two judges who were with him cried out in a loud voice: “Let these three women who gave poison to the queen and caused her a cruel illness perish from the face of the earth!” Immediately then, the king issued a death sentence to the holy martyrs, according to which three Christian women were to die such a death as the Persian Magi wanted to invent for them. These same wicked magicians said: “If these women are not cut in half and if the queen does not pass through the cut halves of their bodies, then she cannot recover. When, then, the holy martyrs were led away to be cut in half, Mavptis again sent his servant to the holy virgin Fervutha, who told her on his behalf: “If you wish to obey me, then you will not die; neither will those women who are with you die. “Why are you, wicked one,” the holy virgin reproached Mavptis in an angry and loud voice, “saying what I cannot listen to.” I finally desire to die for Christ my God, in order to receive from Him eternal life. Shall I love temporary life in order to die for eternal life? After this, the wicked tormentors took the holy martyrs out of the city and here they prepared for each of them two pillars stuck into the ground. Then the holy virgin Fervuf was tied to one of the pillars by her neck, and to the other by her legs. In the same way they tied the other holy martyrs to the other pillars. After everything, they sawed the holy martyrs in half with a large carpenter's saw. Thus, the holy martyrs, the brides of Christ, gave up their pure souls into the hands of their immortal Bridegroom. The torturers, having erected six large pillars - three on each side of the road, hung the sawed-off parts of the bodies of the holy martyrs on them. These latter were like the most beautiful fruit, hanging on the trees, covered with blood. A spectacle appeared, full of horror and worthy of tears. Then, along the same road, the wicked Persian queen was carried between the hanging bodies of the holy martyrs, followed by a great crowd of people. After all this, the honest bodies of the holy martyrs were thrown into the ditch. So the holy martyr Fervuf, together with her sister and slave, ended on the fourth day of the month of April 2389 their suffering for our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom glory, honor and worship are given forever and ever. Amen. Sapor II was the Persian king from 309 to 379. Christianity existed in Persia in an earlier period. Emperor Constantine the Great, soon after his conversion, wrote in favor of the Christians in Sapor. But the success of the new religion was watched with envy and anxiety by the magi, and when war broke out between Sapor and Constantius, they reported to the king that the converts were devoted to Roman interests. As a result, Sapor began a persecution, subjecting Christians to especially burdensome taxes. Then their leader, Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, was captured and brought to the king, who demanded that he recognize the national religion. When he refused this, the king sentenced him to imprisonment and then to death. The persecution intensified even more in the last years of Sapor's reign. In ancient times, “magi” meant wise people who had knowledge of the secret forces of nature, the movement of heavenly bodies, sacred writings, interpreters of dreams and predictors of the future. The death of the holy martyrs followed around 341–343. You might be interested in: