St. Agape
Agape, Chionia (Chione) & Irene
Feast
day: April 3
Death: 304
Agape and her sisters Chionia and Irene, Christians of Thessalonica, Macedonia, were convicted of possessing texts of the Scriptures despite a decree issued in 303 by Emperor Diocletian naming such possessions a crime punishable by death. When they further refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, the governor, Dulcitius, had Agape and Chionia burned alive. When Irene still refused to recant, Dulcitius ordered her sent to a house of prostitution. There she was unmolested after being exposed naked and chained, she was put to death either by burning or by an arrow through her throat.
Died at Thessalonica, Macedonia, April 3, 304. The martyrdom of these three sisters is related in a document that is a somewhat more amplified version of genuine records.
In 303, Emperor Diocletian issued a decree making it an offense punishable by death to possess any portion of sacred Christian writings. Irene and her sisters, Agape and Chionia, daughters of pagan parents living in Salonika, owned several volumes of Holy Scriptures, which they hid. This made the girls very unhappy because they could not read them at all hours as was their wont.
The sisters were arrested on another charge--that of refusing to eat food that had been offered to the gods--and taken before the governor, Dulcetius (Dulcitius). He asked each in turn why they had refused and if they would still refuse. Agape answered: "I believe in the living God, and will not by an evil action lose all the merit of my past life." Some of the transcript follows:
Dulcetius: "Why didn't you obey the most pious command of our emperors and Caesars?"
Irene: "For fear of offending God."
Dulcetius: "But what say you, Casia?"
Casia: "I desire to save my soul."
Dulcetius: "Will not you partake of the sacred offerings?"
Casia: "By no means."
Dulcetius: "But you, Philippa, what do you say?"
Philippa: "I say the same thing."
Dulcetius: "What is that?"
Philippa: "That I had rather die than eat of your sacrifices."
Dulcetius: "And you, Eutychia, what do you say?"
Eutychia: "I say the same thing: that I had rather die than do what you command." Dulcetius: "Are you married?"
Eutychia: "My husband has been dead almost seven months."
Dulcetius: "By whom are you with child?"
Eutychia: "By him whom God gave me for my husband."
Dulcetius: "I advise you, Eutychia, to leave this folly, and resume a reasonable way of thinking; what do you say? will you obey the imperial edict?"
Eutychia: "No: for I am a Christian, and serve the Almighty God."
Dulcetius: "Eutychia being big with child, let her be kept in prison. Agape, what is your resolution? will you do as we do, who are obedient and dutiful to the emperors?"
Agape: "It is not proper to obey Satan; my soul is not to be overcome by these discourses."
Dulcetius: "And you, Chionia, what is your final answer?"
Chionia: "Nothing can change me."
Dulcetius: "Have you not some books, papers, or other writings, relating to the religion of the impious Christians?"
Chionia: "We have none: the emperors now reigning have taken them all from us."
Dulcetius: "Who drew you into this persuasion?"
Chionia: "Almighty God."
Dulcetius: "Who induced you to embrace this folly?"
Chionia: "Almighty God, and his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ."
Dulcetius: "You are all bound to obey our most puissant emperors and Caesars. But because you have so long obstinately despised their just commands, and so many edicts, admonitions, and threats, and have had the boldness and rashness to despise our orders, retaining the impious name of Christians; and since to this very time you have not obeyed the stationers and officers who solicited you to renounce Jesus Christ in writing, you shall receive the punishment you deserve.
"I condemn Agape and Chionia to be burnt alive. for having out of malice and obstinacy acted in contradiction to the divine edicts of our lords the emperors and Caesars, and who at present profess the rash and false religion of Christians, which all pious persons abhor. As for the other four, let them be confined in close prison during my pleasure."
Thus, Chionia and Agape were condemned to be burned alive, but, because of her youth, Irene was to be imprisoned. After the execution of her older sisters, their house had been searched and the forbidden volumes discovered. Irene was examined again:
Dulcetius: "Your madness is plain, since you have kept to this day so many books, parchments, codicils, and papers of the scriptures of the impious Christians. You were forced to acknowledge them when they were produced before you, though you had before denied you had any. You will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither have you the fear of death before your eyes your punishment therefore is unavoidable. In the mean time I do not refuse even now to make some condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods. What say you then? Will you obey the orders of the emperors? Are you ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?"
Irene: "By no means: for those that renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are threatened with eternal fire."
Dulcetius: "Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?"
Irene: "Almighty God, who has commanded us to love Him even unto death; on which account we dare not betray Him, but rather choose to be burnt alive, or suffer any thing whatsoever than discover such writings."
Dulcetius: "Who knew that those writings were in the house?"
Irene: "Nobody but the Almighty, from Whom nothing is hid: for we concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse us."
During the questioning Irene told him that when the emperor's decree against Christians was published, she and others fled to the mountains without her father's knowledge. She avoided implicating those who had helped them, and declared that nobody but themselves know they had the books:
Dulcetius: "Where did you hide yourselves last year, when the pious edict of our emperors was first published?"
Irene: "Where it pleased God, in the mountains."
Dulcetius: "With whom did you live?
Irene: "We were in the open air, sometimes on one mountain, sometimes on another."
Dulcetius: "Who supplied you with bread?"
Irene: "God, Who gives food to all flesh."
Dulcetius: "Was your father privy to it?
Irene: "No; he had not the least knowledge of it."
Dulcetius: "Which of your neighbors knew it?"
Irene: "Inquire in the neighborhood, and make your search."
Dulcetius: "After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you read those books to anybody?"
Irene: "They were hid at our own house, and we dared not produce them; and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and day, as we had been accustomed to do."
Dulcetius: "Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I will not have you die so suddenly, but I order that you be exposed naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it one moment, under pain of death to them."
Irene was sent to a soldiers' brothel, where she was stripped and chained. There she was miraculously protected from molestation. So, after again refusing a last chance to conform, she was sentenced to death. She died either by being forced to throw herself into flames or, more likely, by being shot in the throat with an arrow. The books, including the Sacred Scripture, were publicly burned.
The one expanded version of the story relates that Irene was taken to a rising ground, where she mounted a large, lighted pile. While signing psalms and celebrating the glory of the Lord, she threw herself on the pile and was consumed.
Three other women Casia, Philippa, Eutychia and a man Agatho were tried with these martyrs. Eutychia was remanded because she was pregnant. It is not recorded what happened to the others. Agape and Chionia died on April 3; Irene on April 5, which is her actual feast day
In art, this trio is represented generally as three maidens carrying pitchers, though they may be shown being burned at the stake
Agape, Chionia (Chione) & Irene
Feast
day: April 3
Death: 304
Agape and her sisters Chionia and Irene, Christians of Thessalonica, Macedonia, were convicted of possessing texts of the Scriptures despite a decree issued in 303 by Emperor Diocletian naming such possessions a crime punishable by death. When they further refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, the governor, Dulcitius, had Agape and Chionia burned alive. When Irene still refused to recant, Dulcitius ordered her sent to a house of prostitution. There she was unmolested after being exposed naked and chained, she was put to death either by burning or by an arrow through her throat.
Died at Thessalonica, Macedonia, April 3, 304. The martyrdom of these three sisters is related in a document that is a somewhat more amplified version of genuine records.
In 303, Emperor Diocletian issued a decree making it an offense punishable by death to possess any portion of sacred Christian writings. Irene and her sisters, Agape and Chionia, daughters of pagan parents living in Salonika, owned several volumes of Holy Scriptures, which they hid. This made the girls very unhappy because they could not read them at all hours as was their wont.The sisters were arrested on another charge--that of refusing to eat food that had been offered to the gods--and taken before the governor, Dulcetius (Dulcitius). He asked each in turn why they had refused and if they would still refuse. Agape answered: "I believe in the living God, and will not by an evil action lose all the merit of my past life." Some of the transcript follows:
Dulcetius: "Why didn't you obey the most pious command of our emperors and Caesars?"
Irene: "For fear of offending God."
Dulcetius: "But what say you, Casia?"
Casia: "I desire to save my soul."
Dulcetius: "Will not you partake of the sacred offerings?"
Casia: "By no means."
Dulcetius: "But you, Philippa, what do you say?"
Philippa: "I say the same thing."
Dulcetius: "What is that?"
Philippa: "That I had rather die than eat of your sacrifices."
Dulcetius: "And you, Eutychia, what do you say?"
Eutychia: "I say the same thing: that I had rather die than do what you command." Dulcetius: "Are you married?"
Eutychia: "My husband has been dead almost seven months."
Dulcetius: "By whom are you with child?"
Eutychia: "By him whom God gave me for my husband."
Dulcetius: "I advise you, Eutychia, to leave this folly, and resume a reasonable way of thinking; what do you say? will you obey the imperial edict?"
Eutychia: "No: for I am a Christian, and serve the Almighty God."
Dulcetius: "Eutychia being big with child, let her be kept in prison. Agape, what is your resolution? will you do as we do, who are obedient and dutiful to the emperors?"
Agape: "It is not proper to obey Satan; my soul is not to be overcome by these discourses."
Dulcetius: "And you, Chionia, what is your final answer?"
Chionia: "Nothing can change me."
Dulcetius: "Have you not some books, papers, or other writings, relating to the religion of the impious Christians?"
Chionia: "We have none: the emperors now reigning have taken them all from us."
Dulcetius: "Who drew you into this persuasion?"
Chionia: "Almighty God."
Dulcetius: "Who induced you to embrace this folly?"
Chionia: "Almighty God, and his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ."
Dulcetius: "You are all bound to obey our most puissant emperors and Caesars. But because you have so long obstinately despised their just commands, and so many edicts, admonitions, and threats, and have had the boldness and rashness to despise our orders, retaining the impious name of Christians; and since to this very time you have not obeyed the stationers and officers who solicited you to renounce Jesus Christ in writing, you shall receive the punishment you deserve.
"I condemn Agape and Chionia to be burnt alive. for having out of malice and obstinacy acted in contradiction to the divine edicts of our lords the emperors and Caesars, and who at present profess the rash and false religion of Christians, which all pious persons abhor. As for the other four, let them be confined in close prison during my pleasure."
Thus, Chionia and Agape were condemned to be burned alive, but, because of her youth, Irene was to be imprisoned. After the execution of her older sisters, their house had been searched and the forbidden volumes discovered. Irene was examined again:
Dulcetius: "Your madness is plain, since you have kept to this day so many books, parchments, codicils, and papers of the scriptures of the impious Christians. You were forced to acknowledge them when they were produced before you, though you had before denied you had any. You will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither have you the fear of death before your eyes your punishment therefore is unavoidable. In the mean time I do not refuse even now to make some condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods. What say you then? Will you obey the orders of the emperors? Are you ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?"
Irene: "By no means: for those that renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are threatened with eternal fire."
Dulcetius: "Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?"
Irene: "Almighty God, who has commanded us to love Him even unto death; on which account we dare not betray Him, but rather choose to be burnt alive, or suffer any thing whatsoever than discover such writings."
Dulcetius: "Who knew that those writings were in the house?"
Irene: "Nobody but the Almighty, from Whom nothing is hid: for we concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse us."
During the questioning Irene told him that when the emperor's decree against Christians was published, she and others fled to the mountains without her father's knowledge. She avoided implicating those who had helped them, and declared that nobody but themselves know they had the books:
Dulcetius: "Where did you hide yourselves last year, when the pious edict of our emperors was first published?"
Irene: "Where it pleased God, in the mountains."
Dulcetius: "With whom did you live?
Irene: "We were in the open air, sometimes on one mountain, sometimes on another."
Dulcetius: "Who supplied you with bread?"
Irene: "God, Who gives food to all flesh."
Dulcetius: "Was your father privy to it?
Irene: "No; he had not the least knowledge of it."
Dulcetius: "Which of your neighbors knew it?"
Irene: "Inquire in the neighborhood, and make your search."
Dulcetius: "After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you read those books to anybody?"
Irene: "They were hid at our own house, and we dared not produce them; and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and day, as we had been accustomed to do."
Dulcetius: "Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I will not have you die so suddenly, but I order that you be exposed naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it one moment, under pain of death to them."
Irene was sent to a soldiers' brothel, where she was stripped and chained. There she was miraculously protected from molestation. So, after again refusing a last chance to conform, she was sentenced to death. She died either by being forced to throw herself into flames or, more likely, by being shot in the throat with an arrow. The books, including the Sacred Scripture, were publicly burned.
The one expanded version of the story relates that Irene was taken to a rising ground, where she mounted a large, lighted pile. While signing psalms and celebrating the glory of the Lord, she threw herself on the pile and was consumed.
Three other women Casia, Philippa, Eutychia and a man Agatho were tried with these martyrs. Eutychia was remanded because she was pregnant. It is not recorded what happened to the others. Agape and Chionia died on April 3; Irene on April 5, which is her actual feast day
In art, this trio is represented generally as three maidens carrying pitchers, though they may be shown being burned at the stake
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