Cloud of Witnesses
Martyr4th century

Martyr Domnina and her daughters of Syria

died c. 302 (early 4th century)

Also known as Domnina · Verine · Prosdoce

A Christian mother and her two daughters who fled their pagan relatives and chose death rather than violation and apostasy.

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Life

Domnina was a Christian woman of Syria who, with her two daughters, fled her pagan relatives and chose death rather than submit to violation and the abandonment of her faith. The synaxarion remembers the three as a single family group, and the Church commemorates them together on October 4.

By tradition the daughters are named Vernike (also rendered Berenice or Verine) and Prosdoce. The women left their home and family and settled in Edessa, on the plain of Mesopotamia. Their account is among the oldest of its kind, preserved by early patristic writers who treat their death as a witness made under the threat of sexual assault during the Roman persecution.

Troparion1 hymnReadHide
TroparionTone 4

Your holy martyrs, O Lord,
through their sufferings have received an incorruptible crown from You, our God.
For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries,
and shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through their intercessions, save our souls!

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline4 momentsReadHide
  1. c. 302Flight to EdessaDuring the persecution under Diocletian, Domnina and her two daughters leave their home and family and settle in Edessa, on the plain of Mesopotamia.
  2. c. 302Removal toward HieropolisBerenice's pagan father and husband take the women from Edessa toward Hieropolis in Syria under armed escort.
  3. c. 302Martyrdom by drowningWhen the escorting soldiers stop to rest and drink wine, the women escape and drown themselves in a nearby river to avoid capture and violation.
  4. October 4CommemorationThe Church commemorates Martyr Domnina and her daughters together on this date.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributionsReadHide

Historical Context

The episode is set during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian, conventionally dated to about 302, which places Domnina and her daughters in the early fourth century. According to the tradition, the family fled Antioch and sought refuge in Edessa to escape the pressure of their pagan kin.

Berenice's father and her husband, who were pagans, took the women from their refuge toward Hieropolis in Syria. The soldiers escorting them stopped to rest and to drink wine, and the women used the interval to escape their guards. To avoid capture and violation, they went down to a river that flowed nearby and drowned themselves in its current.

Sources and Transmission

The memory of the three women rests on early patristic testimony. Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Church History (Book VIII, chapter 12), recounts the death of a holy woman of Antioch and her two daughters who, warned that they would face sexual assault, asked their guards for a little time apart, arranged their garments, stepped aside from the road, and cast themselves into a river flowing by. Eusebius does not give their names, but later patristic tradition identifies them as Domnina, Vernike, and Prosdoce.

Saint John Chrysostom devoted a homily to them, preserved in the Patrologia Graeca (volume 50, columns 629-640). In his account Domnina stood in the middle of the river and drew her daughters under the water with her, fearing that the soldiers would rape them; he praises her courage in protecting her daughters and the daughters' willing obedience. A homily by Eusebius of Emesa is also counted among the ancient sources for their lives. A verse in the Byzantine Synaxarium marks their death poetically, describing the three maidens as washed in the current of the river, heedless of their lives.

Family2 relativesShowHide
Her daughter, who fled and met death with her and her sister; commemorated together on October 4.
Vernike (Berenice)
Her daughter, who fled and met death with her and her sister; commemorated together on October 4.
Prosdoce
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Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints