LEONIDAS OF CORINTH AND HIS FELLOW MARTYRS

The memory of Saints Agape (Agatha), Irene, and Chionia (Snezhana) is sometimes associated with Saint Leonidas of Corinth and his fellow martyrs. In this case, they belonged to Leonidas’ disciples but suffered for Christ separately. According to another version of the same hagiography, Agape, Irene, and Chionia were disciples of Saint Zeno of Aquileia, a priest who was the spiritual father of the great martyr Saint Anastasia the Pharmakolytria, who buried their bodies after their martyrdom. Anastasia was a Roman saint, and Leonidas testified to his faith in the Peloponnese.

Memory of Saints Agape, Irene, and Chionia is sometimes associated with Saint Leonidas of Corinth and his fellow women-martyrs. In this case, they belonged to the disciples of Leonidas but suffered for Christ separately. According to another version of the same hagiography, Agape, Irene, and Chionia were disciples of Saint Zeno of Aquileia, a priest who was the spiritual father of the great martyr Saint Anastasia the Pharmakolytria, who, after their martyrdom, gave them burial. Anastasia was a Roman saint, while Leonidas bore witness to his faith in the Peloponnese.

On the penultimate day of April, the Church commemorates the holy martyr Leonidas and the seven virgins who suffered with him. Unfortunately, there is little information about their lives. Arrested on charges of professing the Christian faith, Leonidas and his companions were sent to trial in Corinth. Unable to make the Christians renounce their faith, the pagans subjected them to cruel torture and drowned them in the sea with stones tied around their necks. Local Christians collected the bodies of the martyrs and buried them near the shore, where a church was later built.

Hagiography tells us that the saints were arrested in the ancient region of Troezen in the southeastern part of Argolis on the Peloponnese peninsula, equidistant from Corinth and Athens, 62 and 63 km away, respectively. According to medieval authors, Leonidas was the bishop of Athens, and the martyrs were his church singers. The reason for this was most likely the presence of the famous ancient basilica of the 4th–5th centuries, dedicated to Saint Leonidas, on one of the islands near Athens. The exact time of the martyrdom is unknown. If it happened earlier during the spread of Christianity, it can be assumed that Leonidas was a wandering bishop, and the virgins were deaconesses or preachers who accompanied him.

The prayer canon to the holy martyrs, written by St. Joseph the Hymnographer, has been preserved. Unfortunately, neither the canon itself nor any service to the martyrs is included in the modern Russian liturgical Menaion. The names and even the number of holy martyrs who suffered with Leonidas vary in ancient Menologies. In our liturgical calendar they are listed as follows: Chariessa or Charissa, Victoria or Nika, Galina, Kalida or Kallista, Nunekhia, Vasilissa, Theodora, and Irene. It should be noted that among them are names that are common among Orthodox Christian women, such as Victoria and Galina. The famous Byzantine preacher and Metropolitan of Athens Michael Choniates (1140–1220) dedicated to the saints a panegyric sermon.