Within this book, The Paradise of the Holy Fathers,
are written the excellent deeds and the marvelous lives of the holy
and blessed Fathers, who took upon themselves the yoke of the solitary
life, and who made themselves to be remote from the world, and who
lived in the desert, and who wished to live wholly the Heavenly life,
and to travel on the road which leadeth unto the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us emulate their example and endeavor to do with all our might
what they did! And together with these we commemorate also the marvelous
women who led their lives in the Divine Spirit, and who waxed exceedingly
old, and who with a brave mind brought to an end the strife of the
labors of spiritual excellence, according to Divine Manifestation
and love, for they wished to lay hold of their souls, and to bind
upon their heads the crown of Holiness and impassibility.
The History of the Virgin Potamiaena
There was a certain young virgin called Potamiaena, who was exceedingly
beautiful and she was a Christian. She was a handmaiden of a certain
worldly man, who was given over to a life of pleasure, and she lived
in very great luxury, and her master flattered her greatly, wishing
to destroy her. And being unable to bring her into subjection to his
will, he at length was seized with madness, and he became furiously
angry with her and delivered her over to a certain prefect who lived
at that time in Alexandria saying, "She is a Christian and she revileth
the government, and uttereth blasphemies against the Emperor."
And he promised to give him much money saying, "If she can be persuaded
to do my will, keep her for me without disgrace and punishment, but
if she persisteth in her obstinacy of heart, punish her with every
kind of torture thou pleasest and let her not remain alive to laugh
at me and at my luxurious way of life." And when they brought the
valiant woman before the throne of the judges, she was greatly moved,
but she was not persuaded. The prefect tortured the body of the virgin
of Christ with many different kinds of tortures.
Then again after these things he thought out a crafty plan, and invented
a method of punishment by torture, which was as follows. He commanded
them to bring a huge cauldron which was full of pitch, and to light
a fierce fire under it, and when the pitch was melted and was boiling,
the judge cried to her, saying, "Go thou and submit thyself to the
will of thy lord, and know thou if thou doest not this thing thou
shalt straightway fall into this cauldron."
Now when she heard this, she sealed her soul, and answered and said,
"Thou judgest with iniquity, O judge, for thou commandest me to become
subject unto fornication. I am the handmaiden of Christ, and it is
that I should stand before His throne without blemish." And when the
judge heard this, he was straightway greatly troubled and filled with
wrath. He commanded them to bring her and to cast her into the cauldron.
Then the virgin said unto him, "I adjure thee, by the head of the
Emperor, if thou condemnest me to this thing of thine own self, to
command them to put me into the cauldron little by little, without
stripping my apparel from me, so that thou mayest know the patient
endurance which I have through Christ for the sake of my purity."
And a very short space of time, immediately the pitch reached her
neck and it became cold. Thus she delivered her soul unto God, and
she was crowned with a good martyrdom.
And a great congregation of holy men and women were made perfect,
suffering martyrdom, at that time in the Church of Alexandria and
they became worthy of that Land which the meek inherit. Potamiaena
was martyred with her mother, Marcella, in the reign of Septimius
Severus.
In the next issue of the MIGHTY ARROWS we will learn the inspiring
history of the blessed Didymus the Blind born AD 309……
