September 10 · Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora
Afterfeast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos
O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.”
The joy is still in the house.
Two days ago the Church opened the door. She kept a Great Feast. She sang that a girl-child had been born, and her name is Mary. Yesterday she gathered the parents.
Today is not that day again.
Today is the Afterfeast. The hymns of the birth are still being sung. And today the Church does another thing she loves to do while a Great Feast is still in the room.
She remembers three sisters who would not come apart.
The Church remembers more than one name on the tenth of September. She remembers Venerable Paul the Obedient of the Kiev Caves, and Blessed Prince Andrew, in monasticism Joasaph, and the Holy Apostles of the Seventy Apelles, Luke, and Clement, and other holy names. Those are true days. We will not tell those whole lives this morning.
This morning she asks us to look at the three.
Their names are Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora. The Church calls them holy virgins and martyrs. They were sisters from Bithynia, in Asia Minor. The years the Church gives are 305 to 311, in the days of the emperor Maximian.
Do you hear what she is already singing for them? "Let all who rejoice at their triumph honor these three virgin martyrs, who are united to God as sisters."
That is today's word. Not three strangers. Sisters.
They were distinguished for their special piety. They wanted to preserve their virginity and avoid worldly associations. They chose a solitary place for themselves in the wilderness, and there they spent their lives in prayer.
They did not go into the wild to be famous. They went so they could belong to Christ, and to one another, without the city pulling them apart.
Reports of the holy life of the virgins soon spread, since healings of the sick began to occur through their prayers. People found the quiet place. The sisters had wanted solitude. God let their prayer become a help.
The region of Bithynia was governed at that time by a man named Frontonus. He ordered that the sisters be arrested and brought before him.
At first he tried to persuade them to renounce Christ. He promised great honors and rewards.
The holy sisters steadfastly confessed their faith before him. They rejected all his suggestions. They told him that they did not value the temporal things of this world, and that they were prepared to die for their Heavenly Bridegroom, for death would be their gateway to eternal life.
Those are the Church's words. We will not invent others.
Frontonus flew into a rage. He took out his wrath first on Saint Menodora, the eldest sister. A herald urged her to offer sacrifice to the gods.
We will not linger on the manner of her sufferings. The Church knows them, and that is enough for us this morning.
The saint bravely endured, and she cried out the words the Church has kept:
"Sacrifice? Can't you see that I am offering myself as a sacrifice to my God?"
Then the martyr cried out once more:
"Lord Jesus Christ, joy of my heart, my hope, receive my soul in peace."
With these words she gave up her soul to God, and went to her Heavenly Bridegroom.
Four days later they brought the two younger sisters, Metrodora and Nymphodora, to the court. They showed them that their older sister had already gone to Christ. The governor hoped the sight would frighten them.
The virgins wept over her.
They remained steadfast.
Do you hear that? They wept. Love does not make a person hard. And they would not turn. Love does not make a person leave.
Then Saint Metrodora was made to suffer. She died crying out to her beloved Lord Jesus Christ with her last breath. We will not invent that cry. The Church has told us to whom she called.
Then they turned to the third sister, Nymphodora. Before her were the two who had already gone. Frontonus hoped that this sight would intimidate the young virgin. Pretending that he was charmed by her youth and beauty, he urged her to worship the pagan gods, promising great rewards and honors.
Saint Nymphodora scoffed at his words.
She shared the fate of her older sisters.
The Church says it this way: three virgins confessed the unoriginate Trinity, and for this reason were slain, following the way of the Lamb who was slain.
We will not stay with the fire they meant to make of their bodies. We only say what the Church says: a heavy rain extinguished that fire, and lightning struck down Frontonus and his servant. Christians took up the bodies of the holy sisters and reverently buried them at the Warm Springs at Pythias, in Bithynia.
One wilderness. One confession. They were not parted.
Do you hear what the Church is singing now? Not only that they were brave. She is singing that they loved each other as sisters.
"Invincible in your struggles for the Holy Trinity, and through your love for each other as sisters, you defeated the foe of your spiritual life."
And again: "Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora, who were in all things courageous; they ever pray to the Trinity for us."
The word we heard this morning is a weekday word, not a saint pair and not an afterfeast pair. "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." The Lord sent His own into a quiet place. These three chose a solitary place in the wilderness, and they stayed.
And the Epistle says, "there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Three sisters. One faith. One offering. The Church will not let us tell them as if they came one by one.
The same reading has another word, because this is still the Afterfeast: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Two days ago the Church named that woman as a child. The joy is still in the house. The three sisters belong to the same Lord who took flesh from her.
The psalm we held in the hand is not a lectionary appointment. It is a word that already knows how to stay: "See now! what is so good, or what so pleasant, as for brethren to dwell together?"
That is why the Church will not let the Afterfeast stand without these three. While she is still singing the birth, she names a house that would not come apart.
And today, so many hundreds of years later, on the Afterfeast, we say their names once more, out loud, together — holy virgins-martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora — and they are praying for us still.
you wisely exchanged horrible torture and bitter death for Eternal Life!
Three virgins, you confessed the unoriginate Trinity at an evil council,
and for this reason were slain by the sword,
following the way of the Lamb who was slain!
Now ever pray for us
Who commemorate your holy memory!
who are united to God as sisters and who pour forth fair streams of grace:
Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora,
who were in all things courageous;
they ever pray to the Trinity for us.
and through your love for each other as sisters,
you defeated the foe of your spiritual life,
and with the five virgins, entered victoriously into the Heavenly Mansions
where you ever rejoice with the angels in the presence of the King of All!
has proclaimed joy to the whole universe!
The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God,
has shone from You, O Theotokos!
By annulling the curse,
He bestowed a blessing.
By destroying death, He has granted us eternal Life.
Joachim and Anna are freed from barrenness;
Adam and Eve, from the corruption of death.
And we, your people, freed from the guilt of sin, celebrate and sing to you:
The barren woman gives birth to the Theotokos, the nourisher of our life!
The two troparia and the kontakion of the holy virgins-martyrs, and the troparion and kontakion of the Afterfeast, appointed by the Orthodox Church in America on the September 10 hymn pages. Wording is exact; slash marks were converted to line breaks only. These are today's appointed hymns. They are not the Forefeast hymns of September 7. The Afterfeast pair is the feast's own hymn, still appointed on this afterfeast; it is not printed as if September 8 had come again as a second full feast. Hymns for Paul the Obedient, Joasaph, the Apostles of the Seventy, Barypsabas, and the other same-day names are not printed here.
- Sit three together if you can — or two, or the whole house in one little cluster. Today the Church remembers sisters who would not come apart. This is not yesterday's gathering of the parents, and it is not the Great Feast's little house of joy. It is a staying.
- Sit still together for a slow count of ten. No talking. The sisters chose a solitary place. The hard part is not the words. The hard part is remaining.
- Then one child says, slowly, their own day's shout: "Let all who rejoice at their triumph honor these three virgin martyrs, who are united to God as sisters."
- That child does one small, real good work right away: clear a plate, help a little brother, say something kind. They stayed so they could belong to Christ. We can be a little help in this room.
- Take turns. When everyone has had a turn, sit together and each name one person you want to stay with this week — a sister, a brother, a friend, someone it would be easier to leave. Write those names on scraps of paper and keep them under the lamp until next Sunday.
pray to God for us.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.”
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.