6 February 2025 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Venerable Xenia of Rome

Born in Rome, she was the only daughter of a famous senator. Drawn by the love of Christ, she refused to marry as her parents desired. In order to escape this, she fled from her home with two of her slaves and came to the island of Kos, to a place called Mylassa, where she started a community for virgins, remaining there in asceticism till her death. Though she was a weak woman, she had a man’s perseverance in fasting, prayer and vigils. At the hour of her death (in 450), a wonderful sign appeared over the monastery: a wreath of stars encircling a cross more resplendent than the sun. Many of the sick were healed by her relics. Her two slave girls followed the example of their abbess in all things, and when they died, they were buried, by their wish, at the feet of blessed Xenia.

Catholic Calendar

St. Paul Miki and Companions

A noble Japanese, and an eminent preacher. In 1592 the persecution was renewed, and several Japanese converts received the crown of martyrdom. The emperor Tagcosama, one of the proudest and most vicious of men, was worked up into rage and jealousy by a suspicion that the view of the missionaries in preaching the Christian faith was to facilitate the conquest of their country by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Three Jesuits, one of them was Paul Miki, and six Franciscans were crucified on a hill near Nangasaqui in 1597. The martyrs were twenty-six in number, and among them were three boys who used to serve the friars at mass; two of them were fifteen years of age, and the third only twelve, yet each showed great joy and constancy in their sufferings.