The memory of the holy martyr Vassa and her children: Feognia, Agapia and Pista
The holy martyress Vassa lived during the reign of Emperor Maximian [Emperor Maximian ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire from 305 to 311] in the city of Edessa [the city of Edessa was in Macedonia.]; having married a certain idolatrous priest named Valerius, she gave birth to three sons: Feognia, Agapia and Pista and brought them up in Christian piety, since she was a Christian (she received knowledge of the holy Christian faith from her parents).
Then St. Vasa was taken to the place of judgment, and her sons were subjected to various tortures before her eyes: first, Theognius was hanged and severely punished; then her other son Agapius was beaten; this Agapius the torturers flayed from head to chest, but he was silent and did not utter a word; then her third son was subjected to various tortures. The mother, seeing the suffering of her children, strengthened them and prayed to encourage them to endure their feat courageously. And all these three young men, who courageously endured all the torments that fell upon them, were cut at once by the sword.
And when she was taken to the temple of the gods, she took the idol of Zeus, and cast it to the ground, and broke it; and she was given to be eaten by the beasts, and was not hurt in the midst of them; and the tormentors cast her into the sea thirty days, and she was not hurt; and all the people that watched saw a bright light from afar, and three holy men, like the sun, were cast into the sea, and set her husband upon a holy throne.
Eight days after this, St. Vass appeared to the soldiers on an island called Hellespont; when the Macedonian Egimon, named Philip, learned of this, he wrote to the governor of the Kyzik country (Hellespont diocese) about taking the martyr; this, taking the saint, forced her to an idol sacrifice. But, seeing that the saint remained unyielding, he ordered her to be bound behind her hands and beaten her without mercy throughout her body; finally, he ordered to cut off her honest head. Thus the holy martyress Vassus delivered her holy soul into the hands of God, glory is ascribed to Christ, and always in eternity.
On the same day, the memory of the monk Avramy, a hard-working caveman, who was buried in the Antonia Cave around the XII century.