Holy Martyr
Photina (Svetlana) |
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On
April 2nd (March 20th by the old calendar) the Church commemorates the holy
martyr Photina (translated into Russian as Svetlana). St.
Photina was that same woman of Samaria. whose
meeting with the Lord at the well of Jacob is described in detail in the
Gospel of John (chapter 4, verses 5-42) and is commemorated by the Church on
the fifth Sunday after Pascha. |
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The
Gospel tells us of how the Lord Jesus Christ once came to a city in Samaria
called Sychar, where there was a well given by
Jacob to his son Joseph and his descendants. Fatigued by His journey, the
Lord providentially sat down to rest at this well, while His disciples went
into town to buy some provisions. At that moment a woman from that town came
to the well to draw water. The Lord asked her to give Him to drink. The woman
was surprised by the request, since the Jews had no dealings with the
Samaritans. Jesus said to her: if only you knew with Whom you are talking,
you would ask Him to give you to drink, and He would give you living water.
The woman of Samaria was even further bewildered, thinking of how Jesus could
give her living water, not even having anything with which to draw the water. |
The
Lord then told her that those who drank water from the well would thirst
again, while the water which He gave would become a source of everlasting
life. By living water the Lord meant His life-giving teaching, which leads to
eternal bliss in the Heavenly Kingdom. After that the Lord, knowing that the
woman of Samaria, though secretly living in sin, nevertheless had an ardent
faith in God and a firm expectation of the coming of the Messiah, gradually
revealed to her that it was He, the One talking to her, Who was the
long-awaited Christ. Then the woman of Samaria joyously threw down her
pitcher and ran to the city to invite her fellow-citizens to come out to meet
Christ, and by her testimony many Samaritans came to believe in Him. This
blessed woman of Samaria, who had the great fortune to talk with the Lord,
was later martyred for Christ, together with her sons and her sisters, during
the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero. This persecution
lasted from 65 to 68 A.D., and it was during those years that the holy
apostles Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome, after which the persecutors
began to search for their followers. At that time St. Photina was living in
the city of Carthage (the modern Tunis), where, together with her younger son
Josiah, she fearlessly preached the Gospel, while her older son Victor was in
the Roman army which was fighting against the barbarians. After the war
Victor was appointed military commander of the city of Attalia,
where he was instrumental in converting many people to Christianity,
including the ruler of the city, Sebastian. When
Nero was informed that Victor and Sebastian were preaching the faith of Peter
and Paul in Attalia and converting many to
Christianity, and that the same was being done in Carthage by Photina and
Josiah, who had been sent there by the holy apostles, – the Emperor became
greatly incensed and ordered everyone to come to Rome to be tried. Photina
arrived in Rome accompanied by many Christians, including her five sisters –
Anastasia, Photo, Photida, Paraskeva,
and Kyriakia; they all awaited martyrdom, of which
they had been told in advance by the Lord Jesus Christ, Who had appeared to
them Himself. Nero ordered all of them to be brutally tortured, especially
St. Photina, but by the grace of God they did not feel any pain and remained
unharmed. Then the Emperor, not knowing what else to do with them, ordered
Victor, Josiah, and Sebastian to be blinded and thrown into prison together
with Photina and her sisters. The
holy martyrs spent three years in prison. At a certain moment Nero remembered
them and sent his servants to check on them. Returning from the prison, the
servants reported to the Emperor that the blinded Galileans were seeing again
and were completely well, that the prison itself was full of light and a
wondrous fragrance, that instead of a place of imprisonment it had become a
holy place for the glorification of God, and that many people gathered to see
the saints and be baptized by them. Hearing all this, Nero was filled with fear
and wrath, and ordered the holy men to be crucified upside down and beaten
with straps until their bodies fell apart, which was duly executed, and then
left to hang for three days. On the fourth day the Emperor’s servants came to
check whether the martyrs were still alive, and finding them very much alive,
the servants suddenly became blind. At that moment an angel of God came down
from heaven, untied the martyrs, and made them completely well. Then the
saints prayed over the blinded servants and the latter saw again,
and immediately believed in Christ. They were then baptized and become
followers of the holy martyrs. When
Nero found out about this, he was filled with great rage and called Photina
to the tribunal, where he ordered her to be skinned and thrown into a deep
and slimy well. Then the Emperor ordered her five sisters to be brought
before him and also skinned, after which he ordered all the martyrs to be
beheaded. St. Photina was brought out of the well and tortured again at great
length, and urged to make a sacrifice to the idols, but Photina spit in the
Emperor’s face and laughed at him, for which she was again thrown into the
well, where she finally gave up her soul to God. |
Here
are the Names of the Five Husbands of the Samaritan Woman defined in Trinity:-
Much
confused Trinity is explained:-
www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf
Playlist:- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWyU_oUMJodHvSZGoNDPk5bu
John's
baptism:-
http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf
Family
of God:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/FamGod-1.htm
Watch my over 6000 Youtube Videos for Gnostic
interpretation of Gospel; Channel nijjhar1.