Saint Dimyana and the Forty Virgins

Saint Dimyana was the daughter of Marcus, a high-ranking Roman official who governed the Eastern Delta region of Egypt in the late third century. She was deeply committed to her faith and had vowed her life to God as a virgin dedicated to Christ. She convinced her father to build her a palace where she could live in prayer with forty of her companions — dedicated virgins who served God together.

Her father Marcus became a Christian and was baptized. When Emperor Diocletian heard that Marcus had converted, he threatened him, and Marcus — frightened — temporarily renounced his faith to placate the emperor. When Dimyana heard what her father had done, she wrote to him with courageous love, rebuking him and urging him to be restored. Moved by his daughter's words, Marcus repented and re-declared his faith. He was executed for it.

The emperor then sent soldiers to the palace of Dimyana. She was offered her freedom if she would deny Christ — she refused. She and her forty companions were tortured and beheaded on the same day. She was only fifteen years old. A great church and convent in her honor stands in the Nile Delta at the site of her martyrdom, and her annual feast draws thousands of pilgrims. She is one of the most beloved female saints of the Coptic Church.