Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The History of the Virgin Potamiaena

Abba Isidore tells Palladius a story that he had heard from St. Anthony of a young virgin named Potamiaena who was the servant of a wealthy Alexandrian who wanted to sleep with her. Because she refused, he handed her over to the prefect Basilides revealing that she was a Christian. She survived many tortures and, when threatened with death, continued to refuse submitting to her master's desires and instead confessed Christ. She was dipped in boiling pitch which immediately grew cold and so she died a martyr's death along with many other Alexandrian Christians in the reign of Septimius Severus.

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