Icon of St. Evdoxia of Heliopolis 21st c. - 00STEV01

Feast Day/Commemorated: March 1

Saint Evdoxia was a wealthy Samaritan woman living a life of pagan indulgence in Heliopolis (modern-day Baalbek, Lebanon) during the reign of Emperor Trajan. Her spiritual awakening occurred one midnight when she overheard a monk named Germanus reading aloud about the Last Judgment and the rewards of the righteous. Stricken by the state of her soul and the weight of her sins, Saint Evdoxia sought guidance from Germanus, eventually distributing her immense fortune to the poor and receiving Holy Baptism. She then withdrew from the world, entering a monastery where she dedicated herself to strict asceticism and eventually became the abbess.

The life of Saint Evdoxia in the monastery was marked by extraordinary miracles that served as a powerful witness to the pagan world. When a former lover named Philostrates attempted to lure her back to her old life under the guise of a monk, he was struck dead by divine rebuke, only to be resurrected through the compassionate prayers of Saint Evdoxia—an event that led to his own conversion. Later, when the governor Aurelian sought to plunder the monastery and lost his son to a sudden injury, the intercession of Saint Evdoxia restored the youth to life, resulting in the baptism of the governor and his entire household. These wonders continued even under arrest, as Saint Evdoxia raised the wife of her persecutor, Firmina, and inspired her guard, Diodorus, to perform a resurrection himself through the power of Christ.

After fifty-six years of rigorous monastic labor and tireless enlightenment of the faithful, the earthly journey of Saint Evdoxia reached its conclusion during a renewed wave of Christian persecution. Under the orders of the fierce governor Vicentius, who had grown weary of the influence of Saint Evdoxia and her many miraculous works, she was sentenced to death. On March 1, 107 AD, the Holy Monastic Martyr Saint Evdoxia was beheaded, finally receiving the crown of martyrdom she had long prepared for through her decades of deep repentance and devotion.

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