Feast day: March 20
Death: 1st century
Dates unknown. Greek legend identifies Photina as the Samaritan woman of Sychar--the woman at the well--with whom Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Saint John chapter 4. After telling her neighbors about Jesus, she continued to preach the Gospel, was imprisoned for three years, and died for her faith at Carthage. According to another legend she and her sons, Joseph and Victor, as well as Sebastian, Anatolius, Photius, Photis, Parasceve, and Cyriaca, were all martyred in Rome under Nero. Photina also reputedly converted Emperor Nero's daughter Domnina and 100 of her servants to Christianity before suffering martyrdom. Baronius may have placed them in the Roman Martyrology because he believed that the head of Saint Photina was preserved at Saint Paul's-Outside-the Walls . The monk Michael of Saint Athos Monastery created a picture of Saint Photini, as has Mario Sironi in Christ and the Samaritan Woman.
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