Страдание святой мученицы Татианы

The Holy Martyr Tatiana was born in Ancient Rome from noble parents. Her father, who was consul three times, was a secret Christian and was distinguished by his fear of God. He raised his daughter, Saint Tatiana, in piety and fear of God and taught her the Divine Scripture. When Saint Tatiana reached adulthood, she wanted to spend her life in virginity and chastity; she was the bride of Christ; flaming with love for Him, she served Him alone day and night, mortifying her flesh through prayer and fasting and enslaving it to the spirit. For her virtuous life, she was honored to serve the Church: she was ordained a deaconess and, like the disembodied Angels, she served God in the flesh. And Christ God crowned His bride with the crown of martyrdom. She suffered as follows. When the wicked king Antoninus Heliogabalus 487 was killed by his own Romans and his body, dragged through the city with desecration, was thrown into the Tiber River 488, Alexander 489, a young sixteen-year-old boy, was elevated to the royal throne. He had a Christian mother named Mammaya; from her he learned to honor Christ, but in disagreement with the faith of Christ, for at the same time he continued to serve idols and worshiped them as ancient Roman gods. In his palace there were images of Christ and Apollo 490, revered by the pagans, the Old Testament Abraham and the pagan Orpheus 491 and many others. Alexander himself, as the son of a Christian woman, did not persecute Christians, but his governors, regional governors and consuls, greatly oppressed Christians. Since Alexander himself was too young, the government of the state was entrusted to some of the council members; Chief among them was the city eparch 492 Ulpian, a tough-tempered and great enemy of Christians. These advisers managed everything on behalf of the king. It was they who sent out orders everywhere to force the Galileans (as they called Christians) to worship the Roman gods everywhere, threatening them, in case of disobedience, with severe torture and even death. The following fierce enemies of Christians and faithful servants of the devil were chosen to monitor whether Christians were fulfilling this command: comite 493 Vitaly, cuvicular 494 Vass, domestic 495 Kay. Then in Rome and in all areas of the Roman state the blood of Christians flowed like water. They were not spared, but were tortured and put to death. At that time, the holy virgin Tatiana was captured by the pagans and brought to the temple of Apollo. They wanted to force her to bow to this idol. She prayed to the true God, and suddenly an earthquake occurred: the idol of Apollo fell and broke into pieces, part of the temple also collapsed and crushed many pagans and priests. The devil who lived in the idol fled from that place with a loud cry and sobbing, and everyone heard his cry and saw a shadow flying through the air. Then the wicked dragged the holy virgin to trial and torment. First they began to hit her in the face and torment her eyes with iron hooks. After long torment, the tormentors themselves became exhausted, for the body of the sufferer of Christ was hard for those who inflicted wounds on her, like an anvil, and the tormentors themselves suffered more torment than the holy martyr. And the Angels invisibly stood near the saint and struck those who tormented Saint Tatiana, so that the tormentors cried out to the lawless judge and asked him to order an end to the torment; they said that they themselves suffered more than this holy and innocent virgin. Tatiana, courageously enduring suffering, prayed for her tormentors and asked the Lord to reveal to them the light of truth. And her prayer was heard. Heavenly light illuminated the tormentors, and their spiritual eyes were opened. They saw four Angels surrounding the saint, heard a voice from heaven to the holy virgin, and fell to the ground before her and began to pray to her: “Forgive us, servant of the true God, forgive us, for it was not our will that we caused you torment.” All of them (there were eight of them) believed in Christ and were baptized in their own blood, for they were cruelly tortured for confessing Christ and, finally, their heads were beheaded. The next day, the unrighteous judge, having sat down at the judgment seat, again ordered Saint Tatiana to be brought to torture. She appeared before her tormentor completely healthy. Her face was calm and joyful. The judge began to convince the holy virgin to make a sacrifice to idols, but his efforts remained in vain. Then he ordered the saint to be naked and cut with razors. Her virgin body was white as snow, and when they began to cut it, instead of blood, milk flowed from the wounds, and a great fragrance spread, as if from a vessel with aromas. The saint, looking up to heaven, prayed amidst this torment. Then she was spread out crosswise on the ground and beaten with rods for a long time, so that the torturers were exhausted and often changed. For, as before, the Angels of God stood invisibly near the saint and inflicted wounds on those who struck the holy martyr. The torturer's servants were exhausted, declaring that someone was striking them with iron sticks. Finally, nine of them died, struck by the right hand of the Angel, and the rest fell to the ground barely alive. The saint denounced the judge and his servants and said that their gods were soulless idols. Since evening was already approaching, they threw the saint into prison. Here she spent the whole night, praying to the Lord and singing His praises. Heavenly light illuminated her, and the Angels of God glorified with her. In the morning she was brought to trial again. Seeing the holy martyr completely healthy, with a face even more beautiful than before, everyone was amazed and surprised. At first they began to gently and flatteringly persuade her to make a sacrifice to their great goddess - Diana 496. The holy virgin showed that she agreed to follow their advice. She was taken to the Church of Diana. The demon that lived in the idol of Diana sensed the approach of the holy virgin and began to cry out loudly: - Woe is me, woe is me! Where can I run from Your Spirit, O Heavenly One, for the fire that flares up from all corners of this church drives me away? The saint, approaching the church, marked herself with the sign of the cross and, raising her eyes to heaven, began to pray. Suddenly there was a terrible thunderclap and lightning flashed: fire that fell from the sky burned the church with the idol, the victims, the priests; Many of the unbelievers, scorched by lightning, fell to the ground dead. Then they took Saint Tatiana to the praetor 497, hung her there and tormented her with iron hooks and even tore out her nipples. After this, the saint was imprisoned, and again the radiant angels of heaven appeared to the holy passion-bearer, completely healed her of her wounds and praised her courageous suffering. The next morning, Saint Tatiana was brought to the circus 498 and a terrible lion was released on her so that he would tear the saint to pieces. But the fierce animal did not touch the saint. The lion caressed her and obediently licked her feet. When they wanted to take the lion back from the theater to the cage, he suddenly rushed at one noble dignitary named Eumenia, and tore him to pieces. They hanged Saint Tatiana again and again began to plan her body, but again the Angels invisibly struck her tormentors and they fell dead. Then they threw the saint into the fire, but the fire did not harm her: the power of the fiery flame subsided, as if honoring the servant of Christ. The wicked attributed all these wondrous signs not to the power of Christ, but to sorcery; They cut off the saint's hair, hoping that her spell would no longer be effective. They thought that the saint had some magical power in her hair, so that nothing could harm her. So they cut off her hair and imprisoned her in the church of Zeus 499 . The godless thought that the saint could no longer harm their deity, because with the loss of her hair she also lost the power of sorcery. The saint spent two days imprisoned in that church. The heavenly light, which always shone upon her, spilled into the church, and the Angels encouraged and consoled her. On the third day, the priests and the people came to sacrifice to their god Zeus. Having opened the church, they saw that their idol had fallen and broken, and Saint Tatiana remained in joy in the name of the Lord God. Then she was brought to the court. The judge, not knowing what else to do with her, pronounced a death sentence on her, and Saint Tatiana was beheaded with a sword. 500 Together with her they executed her father, for they found out that he was a Christian. First, the torturers deprived him of his honorary title and took away all his property. Condemned to death, he died by the sword along with his daughter for the name of Christ. Both of them were honored by the Lord to receive the crowns of martyrdom from Christ God, to Him be glory forever. Amen. You shone brightly in your suffering, passion-bearer, covered with your blood, and like a red dove you flew to Heaven, Tatiano: pray the same forever for those who honor you. Antoninus Heliogabalus, Roman emperor, reigned from 218–222; was an extremely depraved person, which is why he soon incurred the contempt of the soldiers. He adopted his cousin, the noble Alexander Severus, but when he repented of this and began to make attempts on the latter’s life, he was killed by soldiers. The Tiber is a river flowing from the Apennines, near which the city of Rome is located. Alexander Severus reigned from 222–235. Apollo is one of the most revered Greco-Roman pagan gods; was revered as the god of the sun and mental enlightenment, as well as public welfare and order, the guardian of the law and the deity of predicting the future. Orpheus is the singer-hero of Greek myths, the power of whose singing, according to the Greeks, was so great that he set trees and rocks in motion and tamed wild animals. Eparch - regional commander; sometimes this name meant the head of the fortress, the commandant. – Ulpian was one of the nobles closest to the king. Comites were originally called the companions of the highest official in the province, and later the companions of the emperors, who made up their closest retinue. Kuvicularium - royal bed sheet, sleeping bag. Domestiki - security guards of the Roman emperors. Diana, also known as Artemis, is the Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt. Praetor - the judicial seat where the Roman chief, or judge, sat. A circus was a square enclosed by a row of benches or a wall. There, competitions between fighters and animals took place. Christians were also thrown into this square or arena and then wild animals were released, which were kept in special cages at the circus. Zeus, or Jupiter, is a Greco-Roman god revered by pagans as the ruler of heaven and earth, the father of all gods and people. The holy martyr Tatiana suffered during the persecution launched against Christians in the fourth year of the reign of Alexander Severus, in the year 226. You might be interested in: