Holy Monastic Martyrs Olympia and Euphrosynē

Saint Olympia (Ολυμπία) was born to devout parents who were from Constantinople. Her father was a priest, and her mother was the daughter of a priest. They fled Constantinople for some unknown reason and went to the Peloponnesos. At the age of ten, Saint Olympia lost her parents, and her relatives sent her to Karyes Monastery at Therme on the island of Lesbos, where her aunt Dorothy was the Igoumeness. Originally this was a womens' monastery, but today it is Saint Raphael's Monastery.

At the age of nineteen, Saint Olympia was tonsured as a nun. When she was twenty-five, she succeeded her aunt as Igoumeness. About ten years later, on May 11, 1235, pirates arrived on Lesbos and went to the monastery where there were thirty nuns. Some of them were raped by the pirates, but others fled to the mountains.

Igoumeness Olympia and Eldress Euphrosynē (Ευφροσύνη) were subjected to frightful torments. Saint Euphrosynē was hanged from a tree and was burnt. Saint Olympia was burnt all over her body with torches, and after that they took a red-hot iron rod and passed it from one ear and out through the other. Finally, her tortured body was nailed to a board with twenty nails, and this board was buried with her. Then the pirates went away.

The account of the lives and martyrdom of these two holy women became known in 1959 when, by divine revelation, the relics of these saints were found at Therme. Twenty nails were found in Saint Olympia's tomb. Sometimes she has appeared together with Saint Raphael.

Saint Olympia and Saint Euphrosynē are commemorated on May 11 and also on Bright Tuesday with Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene.