30 August 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Martyr Myron, the Presbyter

Myron was a priest in the town Achaia. During the reign of Emperor Decius and on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, pagans charged into the church, dragged Myron out from the service and subjected him to torture. During the time of torture, an angel appeared to him and encouraged him. After that, they began to cut his skin in strips from his head to his feet. The martyr grabbed one such strip of his skin and, with it, struck the torturer – the judge – on the face. The judge Antipater, as though possessed, took a sword and killed himself. Finally, they took Myron to the city of Cyzicus, and there slew him with the sword in the year 250 AD.

Catholic Calendar

Margaret Ward

Nothing is known of her early life. Margaret worked a lady’s companion to the Whittle family in London. She and her servant, Blessed John Roche, were arrested for helping Father Richard Watson escape from Bridewell Prison by smuggling him a rope and then helping him once he was outside. Imprisoned, flogged, and tortured, she was offered freedom if she would surrender Father Watson and convert to the Church of England; she declined. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. She was born at Congleton, Cheshire, England and died hanged, drawn and quartered on August 30, 1588, at Tyburn, London, England. She was Beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI.