Calendar: Today, July 7 our Church celebrates and honors the holy memory of the holy great martyr Kyriaki – Kyriaki, Kyriakitsa, Kiki, Kika, Kikitsa, Kitsa, Korina, Domenica, Sandy, Odysseus
Holy Sunday is one of the holy victims of the last ancient persecutions of the Church.
He was martyred in the years of Diocletian, who reigned from 284 to 305. The ancient persecutions are among the most glorious days in the life of the Church, but also every persecution, because it is true that the Church is always persecuted.
Agia Kyriaki was the daughter of pious parents. Her father Dorotheos and her mother Eusevia had no children. They prayed and begged God to give them a child and dedicate him to him.
God heard the prayer of the pious parents, and one Sunday a beautiful baby girl was born.
Dorotheus and Eusevia, faithful to their promise, named it Kyriaki and raised it with all care and diligence, as dedicated to God. Childlessness is always a great sorrow for husbands and especially for Christians, but their joy is once more very great when they have a child.
That is why in every way, and first of all with the name they give to the child, they show their gratitude to God.
In the persecution that Diocletian declared once morest the Christians, Kyriaki would have been a child not even twenty years old. Then both the parents and the daughter were accused and caught as Christians.
And the cruelest thing was that the girl was separated from her parents; Dorotheo and Eusevia took them to Armenia and on Sunday they took her to Nicomedia.
The confession of faith
There the ruler, interrogating the child and seeing her steadfast faith, ordered her to be severely whipped. Kyriaki answered every question – “I am a Christian”.
And to every threat of the ruler he said: “Do not be deceived and do not be deceived by your calculation; God helps me and you will not defeat me.”
After an exhaustive interrogation, they led Saint Kyriaki to the temple, to sacrifice to the idols. She, entering the temple, begged Christ to help her.
A strong earthquake at that time terrified the executioners and the statues of the temple fell and broke into pieces. They then lit a fire to burn her alive, but like Moses’ bush, the flames surrounded her, but they did not burn her.
They then threw her to the beasts, but they didn’t bother her either, similar to Daniel when they threw him into the lions’ den. One would expect the ruler to open his eyes and see the miracle of God, but enraged and blinded by rage, he ordered the beheading of the innocent and pure girl.
Saint Kyriaki, before the executioner carried out the order, asked to be allowed to pray. He then knelt down and began to pray. No one heard her words, because in such moments the heart of man prays “sighs without change”. No lips move, no voice is heard.
And yet God listens, and it’s as if he asks the person praying, like Moses at the Red Sea: “What are you shouting at me?”. Saint Kyriaki prayed for a long time and then bowed to the ground.
When the executioner approached to carry out the order, he saw that Saint Kyriaki was dead. The child’s soul flew like a little bird, and a bright angel took her, to bring her to Christ the Bride.
Source: ekklisiaonline.gr
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