Martyr Eudokia of Persia

Captivity in Persia

The accounts relate that Eudokia was seized by the army of the Persian emperor Shapur during a campaign and deported to Persia along with a great number of Christians, given by the sources as up to nine thousand.

By one account she was placed in the service of a Persian officer's household. Because she knew the Holy Scriptures well, she instructed the other captives and provided moral support to the deported Christians, and she preached to the Persian women, converting many of them to Christianity.

Martyrdom

For her witness and her work of conversion Eudokia endured lengthy and fierce persecution. The fuller accounts describe a staged sequence of tortures: she was flogged and imprisoned, and when she refused to renounce Christianity she was beaten with thorny rods and imprisoned again, before further torments were inflicted.

She was finally put to death by beheading. The Orthodox Church commemorates her as a martyr on August 4.

Sources and Historicity

What is known of Eudokia derives from Christian hagiographic accounts rather than from independent historical documentation. Some modern Orthodox hagiographers have expressed doubts about her historical existence, suggesting she may be confused or identified with another saint, and noting the close parallels between her Passion and that of the Martyr Ia of Persia, also commemorated on August 4.