Hi, everyone. On the 27th of March, the holy Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the ever-memorable holy Martyr Matrona of Thessaloniki. Now, Matrona was a handmaid [to] a mistress, to a woman named Pantilla, who was Jewish. Pantilla’s husband happened to be the military commander of Thessaloniki, so it was a very great and high position. Pantilla knew of Matrona’s Christian [inclinations] but didn’t know exactly how deep they went. She would often tease her and make fun of her, and Matrona was very careful in how she lived out her Christian life in the service of Pantilla.

She would take her to the synagogue, but then later on she would try and hasten off to one of the Christian churches in the area while her employer was in the synagogue. One day, however, something different happened. Pantilla was accompanied Matrona again to the synagogue and went inside, and Matrona, instead of standing around and waiting or trying to go off to a quick church service, happened to go off to a service that was much longer in length. So during this service she realized that time was moving on and that she might be in trouble. Well, indeed, this is what happened.

Pantilla came out of the synagogue and was standing there and waiting and waiting for Matrona to come. Matrona, however, as an example perhaps to all of us today, decided that it just wasn’t proper for her to leave in the middle of a church service, because the festival they were celebrating happened to go on a lot longer on this day. Finally it was over, and Matrona returned, and Pantilla was there and was waiting and was not happy. But she said to Matrona, “Why is it that you…? Just come to the synagogue with us. Why is it that you avoid that? Please come.” Matrona, though, deciding at that point that it was a good time for her to stand up more boldly for her faith, said to Pantilla, “Because God is in the Christian Church, and he is no longer in the synagogue.”

Pantilla was furious when she heard this, absolutely furious. So she took Matrona and had her tortured as best she could, so much so that it was said that there were portions of flesh just hanging off of Matrona. And Matrona kept saying to her, “Why are you doing this?” And Pantilla said, “If you’ve been deceitful with me in regards to being a Christian, then you’ve probably been false also in your service.” And Matrona said, “That’s not true. I’ve done everything that you’ve ever asked me. I’ve been a good and loyal servant to you, absolutely obedient.” But Pantilla was having none of it. After this torture, she took Matrona and locked her into a very dark closet and left her in there for four days.

One might think that four days, bleeding and without food or water, that this would have been the end of Matrona, but when Pantilla had the closet opened, she found that Matrona was standing there, arms uplifted in prayer while she was chanting to God, and all of her wounds were gone. This made Pantilla even more furious, and so she brought Matrona out and had her tortured yet once again, and Matrona again protested, but yet at the same time the wounds from this torture healed also. So Pantilla took her again and threw her back into the closet and left her there for many, many days.

This time, when she returned, it was found that Matrona who had been praying to God and asked the Lord Jesus to receive her into his heavenly kingdom, that the Lord had granted her wish. So they opened up the closet and tortured her yet a little bit more until she died, then after that took her and, being afraid perhaps that she would get in trouble for murder or even starvation, Pantilla had her thrown off a cliff from a great, great distance, and there was no investigation into Matrona’s murder. Everyone thought that she had just fallen off a cliff, but the Christians knew better, and they gathered up her relics and took them and hid them.

Pantilla’s end would not be so great, because one day, as she was near a wine-press, she fell into it and was killed and drowned in the midst of all the cut up and pressed down grapes. The Lord was not going to allow this dishonor to happen to his wonderful servant Matrona. Yet Pantilla, being absolutely disinclined to repentance or to forgiveness for anything that she had done, met a terrible end.

It was probably another 200 years or so, as this occurred in the late 300s or perhaps early 400s—we’re not exactly sure of the date—that a church was built in the sixth century by the local bishop in honor of the glorious and holy martyr Matrona of Thessaloniki. May her dedication be the same dedication that we ourselves are infused with by our Lord Jesus Christ so that we can also serve him in even so small a way as Matrona did in a very great way.