MARTYR IA OF PERSIA

On August 17 (4), the Church honors the memory of the martyr Ia. The saint seems to be forgotten, however, the testimony of faith and the circumstances of her time are incredibly important and relevant for our times. In some menologions the martyr is also called Eudokia.

In the middle of the 4th century, it seemed to many that Christianity would triumph forever. Several generations of emperors passed, who, although not all of them were completely Orthodox, nevertheless persecuted paganism and were convinced Christians.

In 361, Emperor Julian ascended the throne. The Great Doctor of the Church, Gregory the Theologian (329–390), studied philosophy with him in Athens in his youth. Subsequently, he recorded memories of how Julian, being a catechumen, that is, formally preparing to be baptized, gradually moved away from Christianity during his studies. The future emperor was fond of pagan mysteries and, according to Gregory, tried to enter into communication with demons. However, until his accession to the throne, he kept all this a secret.

Just before his accession, Julian declared himself a pagan, made sacrifices to the gods and took the path of paganism. His Christian contemporaries nicknamed him Julian the Apostate. He himself then began a policy of great apostasy. Julian did not persecute Christians systematically, with fire and sword, as his predecessors had done through persecution in previous centuries. Like the modern powers that be, Julian mocked Christian faith and tried to defeat it through slander, ridicule and grotesquery.

Soon Julian went to war with the Persians. He was killed in battle, and in such a way that his contemporaries were amazed at how quick and “biblically terrible” the God of Christians can be in his anger. The last words of the Apostate were a cry of despair: “You have defeated me, Galilean!”

The consequence of this defeat of the Roman Army was the loss of territories. The Persian Shah Shapur II (309-379), who ruled at that time, took the city of Beth-Zabde, which was located on the right bank of the Tigris on the border of the Roman and Persian Empires, around 362. According to hagiographic sources, the walls of the city were destroyed, the city’s defenders were executed, and nine thousand Christians were taken into captivity.

Among them was Ia-Eudokia, a virgin dedicated to God. The ancient Church saw virgins dedicating their virginity as a special, incomparable calling. After all, the biblical, apostolic, ancient Christian consciousness was able to see in the virginity of virgins the suspension of time, the collapse of chronology, the cessation of man’s dependence on himself. In the understanding of the Ancient Church, virginity dedicated to God was the only place of immutability in the Universe. In this uniqueness it was a God-like topos of inviolability.

In accordance with the practice of ancient eastern despotic empires, captives, both Christians and pagans, were transferred to another place, awaiting their complete assimilation. For unmarried women, the best way to “dissolve” in a new environment was marriage. Ia was a virgin, and therefore was placed among captives like her. She immediately began preaching the Gospel among the pagans. Her word converted many women to the faith, so that even the Persian pagan women, apparently assigned to supervise the new arrivals, turned their ears to the gospel of faith.

So gradually the suspicion fell on the saint that she was not just preaching the “Roman faith,” as the Persian authorities mistakenly perceived Christianity after receiving baptism by Constantine the Great (+337), but was also discouraging captives from marriage, and preaching evasion of family responsibilities to Persian women. A denunciation was made. According to the life, fanatical Zoroastrians seized the saint and tried to force her to perform a fire-worshipping ritual. For her refusal, she was tortured for a long time, and then, already wounded, she was handed over to the authorities, who subjected her to imprisonment.

The saint’s confession has been preserved, which she pronounced when, two months later, she was taken out of prison to again be forced to make a public renunciation. “In the grace given to me, I will remain steadfast, and nothing in this world will force me to renounce the One True God in exchange for your vanity-filled idols.” In response, the saint was beaten with forty roses, so that the thorns severely mutilated her body.

Apparently, Ia was already quite famous among her circle, so convincing her to renounce her faith was much more important than simply taking her life, as an edification to everyone. After another six months in prison, the saint was again subjected to persuasion. Then she was tortured, after which she was put in the mechanic press. Finally she was beheaded with a sword. The suffering of the Persian martyrs, which the pagans inflicted on them, always shocked with its sophisticated cruelty even those who knew how the Roman pagan authorities tortured Christians.

The Church reveres the saint for her incredible perseverance in evangelism, when she, being a captive and finding herself in a foreign land, not only preserved her faith, like the biblical people in captivity, but also preached Christ to the pagans from her environment and to all those who were unwitting witnesses to her words. Saint Ia’s sermon was addressed primarily to women, so she can be considered the patroness of women’s ministry in evangelism in the modern world.

In the face of circumstances of insurmountable force, trials, persecution, disasters, the saint, by the grace of faith, became an example of firm, irresistible faith, readiness to proclaim Christ anywhere and everywhere, following the gospel call to “be always ready”, as about this, like Julian parodying Christianity, many centuries after it, said the Soviet pioneers who have now disappeared into oblivion. Through the intercession of Saint Ia, the blessed virgin, may the Lord grant us the ability and readiness, wherever we are in our journey along the paths of the Universe, to preach faith in Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again (cf. 2 Cor. 5:15).

The Greek name “Eudokia” could be translated as “favour” and “good fame”. We do not know and will never know whether this was the Greek name of the saint, as she was called before her captivity, or whether it was an epithet bestowed upon her by those who heard the favor of God’s words in the preaching of the Gospel. In the semantic richness of its narrative, the life says that at the site of the saint’s martyrdom, the fragrance of flowers suddenly spread. According to one interpretation, the name “Ia” meant “violet”, and therefore, in Latin word formation, it is also pronounced as “Violetta”. Eudokia, Ia, Violetta… It turns out that the day of commemoration of the holy Persian Martyr is the name day of many pious people.