When the Emperor of Rome was Hadrian
(117 A.D.- 138 A.D.) there lived in a town in Italy, a young and wealthy noble
Christian woman, whose name was Sophia.
She had lost her husband very early
and lived alone with her three beautiful daughters, Faith, who was 12 years old,
Hope, who was 10 years old and Love,
who was just 9 years old. All three
girls had a radiant beauty, not only physical beauty, but essentially from the
many mental and spiritual gifts they had.
Sophia, as a mother, was a very good
role model. She was kind, modest, humble, with a burning love for Christ in her
heart, but she was also incredibly tender-hearted towards all poor and
suffering people.
She was trying to teach her children
with her example of how to live a virtuous life. To love, that is, what is good
and pleasing to God and to adorn their souls with virtues and divine gifts. She
was teaching them to avoid anything that could contaminate the pure white
covering of their soul, which they wore when they became Christians. Many times
when her children had fallen asleep with the sweet motherly sound of her
narrating the stories of the life of Christ, humble Sophia was kneeling beside
their beds and letting the fiery prayer of her heart ascend to the throne of
her well-beloved Christ the king. She was begging Him to guide her children to
what is good and virtuous and to protect them from all evil.
Their home was a workshop of love.
In their free time they were embroidering,
sewing and knitting warm clothes for the poor of their region. Their
good reputation was known everywhere and everyone was praising them for their
good deeds, but also for their holy life, which was a terrifying discord with
the sinful and idolatrous life of that era.
At that time the Church of Christ was
living one of the most blood-stained, but also the most heroic periods of its
history. Masses of Christians wrote with their blood moving pages of love for
the crucified Jesus and His Gospel.
Sophia was forced to leave the small
town, in which she had lived until then, and went to live with her three daughters
in the famous capital of Italy; glorious Rome. There the Christian Church was
big and strong and she would be able to find protection and help for her and
her girls in every circumstance of their lives.
Once there, it didn't take long for
the reputation of their virtue and good deeds to spread everywhere. Everyone
was speaking of the four angels who had come to their town. Many pagans, who
were seeing their virtuous life, were captivated by the new faith in the true
God and were becoming Christians.
However, the irreverent commander of
the city, Antiochus, did not like this and he denounced them to the Emperor as
Christians, as scorners of their pagan gods. So, one day they arrested Sophia
with her three daughters, to respond to these charges in front of the Roman
judge.
“I was informed, noble lady, that
you and your three daughters belong to the ranks of the Christians. I do not
want to believe it ...”
“Believe it, replied calmly Sophia.
My daughters and I are Christians.”
“Keep in mind, that you and your
daughters will face harsh tortures and death, if you don't deny this stupid
faith of yours? And while you can dedicate yourself as you want, don't you feel
sorry for your beautiful daughters, who will leave this life before they have
the chance to enjoy it? I'll give you three days deadline to think about it.
Until then I will send the four of you to stay confined in the house of a noble
lady, Palladia.”
The impious judge hoped that the
pagan, Palladia, could persuade Sophia and her children with her feminine
cunning.
In vain, Palladia was trying to
persuade, sometimes the mother and other times the daughters. In vain, she was
promising them various gifts and praising the joys of this life. Those three
days were an ordeal for Sophia. She was scared of the idea that her children
could lose their faith and deny Christ. That’s why her fiery prayer was rising
to heaven, so that Christ would strengthen her children to bravely confess their
faith.
Three days later the four of them
were taken in front of the court. The judge tried to intimidate them:
“If you do not deny Christ, he said,
your beautiful and tender faces will be full of wounds. Your bodies will be
deformed. Have pity on yourselves.”
“We will not deny our Lord, they
responded altogether. We prefer to die rather than deny Christ, said Sophia.
The same words were repeated with serenity by her three girls.”
“And how will you bear the tortures?
Look here! These tools rip apart bodies and those over there break bones. Think
about what you will suffer!”
“We love Christ more than anything
else”, they declared.
Then the furious judge ordered them
to start the tortures. They tied Sophia to a chair, so she could watch her
girls being tortured and they started with the eldest daughter. They undressed
Faith and began to whip her with violent ruthlessness. And while the torturers took
turns one after the other from fatigue, our Saint, calm, without pain, was praying with all the power of her heart to
her well-beloved Jesus. After the
whipping, they started to tear her tender body apart with sharp knives. When they cut off her
breasts, instead of blood, milk poured
out!
“Deny Christ and you will be saved”,
the judge was crying out.
“I love my Christ and will not deny
Him”, she was answering.
And while her body was
full of wounds and blood, they stood her upright and again they began to whip
her. Meanwhile, a large grill was
heated to an extremely high temperature. They laid brave Faith's body there. However, not even the fire could hurt the
little daughter. Angels were invisibly
beside her to support and help her, so she would not be in pain. Many
pagans, who were seeing the power of the Christian faith, through these
miracles, were becoming Christians. This angered the impious judge, who
immediately ordered them to behead Faith.
On hearing the decision Faith jumped
with joy. A bright radiance came from her beautiful little face and with a
voice that shook with enthusiasm she said:
“I can see heaven full of angels opening for me and Jesus Christ
inviting me. My Jesus, I love You!”
Then she bowed her head to accept
death by the sword.
“Well? The fierce judge asked, have
you maybe regretted your decision?”
“Go ahead with your atrocious plan,
Sophia said, none of us will deny Christ.”
The same tortures were resumed with
the second daughter, Hope. After they first flogged her mercilessly, they then put her on a flaming grill to burn her. The fire,
however, went out, so Hope remained untouched. Then they threw her into a
furnace to burn her completely. But, even there the fire didn't harm her at all.
Angels
stood beside her and cooled the flames. Then they hung her from a tree by
her hair and tore her body apart with
iron nails. From her wounds, however, wonderful
myrrh poured out that spread its fragrance throughout the surrounding area.
Then they placed her in a bronze pot
full of hot tar and resin, but even then nothing happened to her. Many
pagans, who were watching all these miracles, abandoned their idols and became
Christians. After that the judge ordered them to behead her.
“What do you have to say now, stupid
mother?” asked the judge. “Do you also want to see your third daughter die?”
Before Sophia could speak, nine-year
Love jumped in front of the judge and said:
“I'm also a Christian and not at all
afraid of your tortures, you barbarian judge.”
The furious judge ordered them to hang little Love from a tree and to whip
her mercilessly. Then he threw her into a furnace to be burned. Angels, however, were protecting the body
of the little martyr, so that she would not suffer from the tortures. When
the judge saw that not even the nails plunged into her childish chest were not
able to harm her, he gave the order to
behead the third daughter as well.
When Sophia saw the tender head of
her third daughter fall under the sword of the executioner, she jumped up and
shouted:
“Now hard and heartless idolater,
kill me as well, so that I may be with my girls in heaven as quickly as
possible.”
The judge, however, was furious, since
he was humiliated by the three little
girls, shouted in rage:
“Go to your house, silly woman. I
won’t kill you. I will let you live, because your life, without your children,
will be more agonizing.”
She left running.
Sophia, then, got valuable myrrh and
buried the bodies of her three heroic daughters. For three days Sophia stayed by the graves of her three children.
On the third day, there where she was praying, they heard her say:
“Oh, my tender offspring, accept
your mother there, where you are now!”
Having said that, she let her soul
fly high up to heaven close to Him, Whom she and also her three children loved
more than anything else on this earth.
Our Church appointed to celebrate every year the
memory of the three virgin martyrs, Faith,
Hope and Love, along with their holy mother Sophia, on the 17th September.
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