HOLY MARTYR VASSA OF EDESSA
Thanks to the ballad “September 3” by the Russian émigré singer Mikhail Shufutinsky, September 3 became a day of lyrical memories, melancholy and reflections on the autumn time, the roots of which go back to the disappointments of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and the autumn depressions of Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov. The memory of Saint Vassa and her three sons on this very day, September 3rd, is a stunning coincidence meant to remind that God is truly the Lord of the rings of times and the Master of all coincidences.
1 On September 3, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Vassa of Edessa. Saint Vassa suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Galerius at the turn of the third and fourth centuries.
2 The Greek city of Edessa, from which Vassa came, should be distinguished from the famous Syrian metropolis, the ancient capital of the Holy Image of the Savior. It is interesting to note that on the same day as the memory of Saint Vassa, the Church celebrates the memory of the Apostle Thaddeus of 70, whose name, according to ancient tradition, connects the history of the Holy Image and the preaching of the Gospel in Syrian Edessa. It is possible that this is not a coincidence, but a consequence of the fact that the editors of the ancient liturgical calendars mistakenly identified two different Edessas and synchronized the memory of the Apostle with that of Vassa of Edessa, as if they were both from the same city. This is indirectly attested by the liturgical office of the Apostle Thaddeus and the martyr Vassa, which is common for these two saints in the liturgical Menaion.
3 Along with Saint Vassa, her sons Theognius, Agapius, and Pistus suffered. The memory of the holy martyrs, a mother and her sons, is an example of early Christian family holiness, and, sadly, an example of human betrayal. Vassa was the wife of a pagan priest named Valerius, who gave her and his own sons over to the pagans.
4 The saints were arrested, subjected to persuasion, torture, and torment. Hoping that Vassa would give in to the suffering of her own children, the pagans first dealt with the three sons. Their torments were severe and varied. In the end, all three were beheaded. As if wishing to avenge every child raised by her in the Christian faith, the pagans subjected Saint Vassa to a bloody triad of tortures: she was burned with fire, she was thrown to the wild beasts and then thrown into the sea.
5 A passing ship saved her. Perhaps this was an “ordinary” human rescue, perhaps a supernatural phenomenon. Hagiographers believed that those who saved the saint were Angels, and St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain believed that they were her sons. In the apotheosis of their heavenly glory, they appeared to their mother as a sign of gratitude and strengthening.
6 At the moment of her interrogation, the saint toppled the pagan idol of Zeus, but the real apogee of her suffering was her “return from the dead” . Like the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, who did not try to escape the torment of the Cross, which He proclaimed at the Last Supper in establishing the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a seal and sign of the voluntariness of His Passion and our salvation, Saint Vassa returned to her executioners. Eight days later, when the pagans finally considered her lost in the depths of the sea, she again appeared before the court. In divine providence, this was a chance for repentance, correction and conversion. But, unlike the Apostle Thomas, who on the eighth day believed in Christ through touching His wounds, in the future proof that the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist serve as the source of faith, the Greek pagans considered Saint Vassa a ghost. They beat the defenseless young woman with sticks for a long time. As if convinced, in their pagan frenzy, that she was not spirit, but flesh, they then beheaded her.
7 " You were a mother of fair children, O trophy-bearer Vassa. You did bring to the Trinity the fruits of your womb. At you word Theognios, Pistos, and Agapios bravely contested and with you partake of glory. Save those who cry to you: Glory to Him Who has crowned you; glory to Him Who has glorified you; glory to Him Who through you works healings for all.,” says the troparion to the martyrs.
8 The modern Russian Menaion contains a service to the holy martyrs, but, unfortunately, there is no troparion, which is indirect evidence of the modesty of the celebration. On September 30, which is symmetrical in numbers to the 3rd of the same month, the Church celebrates the memory of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope and Love, and their mother Sophia. Saint Sophia and her three daughters are much more famous than Vassa and her three sons. The memory of the martyr Vassa and her sons was greatly celebrated on the Greek islands of the Sea of Marmara, where, according to legend, they suffered. After the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 and the expulsion of the Greek population from the former Byzantine territories in Asia, there is no longer a Christian presence there. As our contemporary Bishop Vasily Krivoshein wrote, citing a Greek proverb, “a poor saint has no doxology.”