died May 11, 1235
Two monastic women of the convent at Therme on Lesbos who were put to death for Christ.
The Holy Monastic Martyrs Olympia and Euphrosyne of Lesbos
Olympia and Euphrosyne were two monastic women of the convent at Therme on the island of Lesbos who were put to death for Christ in the thirteenth century. They are commemorated together as a single named pair on May 11, the day of their martyrdom, and are numbered among the venerable-martyrs of the Orthodox Church.
According to the synaxarion, Saint Olympia came from Constantinople, where her father was a priest. After her parents died when she was about ten years old, relatives sent her to the Karyes Monastery at Therme on Lesbos, where she was raised in the monastic life. She is said to have become abbess (igoumeness) of the community at the age of twenty-five.
About a decade into her leadership, on May 11, 1235, pirates landed on Lesbos and came to the monastery, where some thirty nuns were living. While a number of the sisters fled to the mountains, Olympia and Euphrosyne remained and were seized. The two were tortured and killed for refusing to renounce their faith.
As venerable and proven ascetics, as honorable and renowned martyrs,
and as models of the desert life, O most exalted Olympia and Euphrosynē,
we sing hymns of praise to you,
for you have trampled upon serpents.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Your lambs Olympia and Euphrosynē, O Jesus,
call out to You in a loud voice:
I love You, O my bridegroom,
and in seeking You, I endure suffering.
In Baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You,
and died so that I might live with You.
Accept me as a pure sacrifice,
for I have offered myself in love.
By their prayers save our souls, since You are merciful.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
The tradition preserved by the synaxarion records that both women endured severe torture before death. Saint Euphrosyne was hanged from a tree and burnt. Saint Olympia was burnt over her whole body with torches, after which a red-hot iron rod was passed in through one ear and out through the other; her body was then nailed to a board with twenty nails, and the board was buried together with her.
According to the account, the relics of the two saints remained hidden for centuries until, by what the tradition describes as divine revelation, they were discovered at Therme in 1959. Twenty nails were reported to have been found in Saint Olympia's tomb, corresponding to the manner of her death recorded in the synaxarion.
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