When the edict came down from on high – All are required to offer worship to the idols, on pain of death! – she quietly informed the Roman authorities that she could not comply.
The authorities were not pleased, to say the least.
Within a few hours, officials representing the Roman Emperor Maximian II Galerius (305-311) informed the young virgin Ennatha that if she did not immediately repudiate Christ and perform the required idol-worship, she would be burned alive at the stake. But the faith of this young woman and Holy Martyr was so great that she was not even tempted to recant!
The brutal execution of the valorous Ennatha (also known as Constantia) took place in Caesarea, a heavily populated coastal town in Palestine
The proceedings were extremely painful. Each time he pressed the young woman from Bethshan to submit to the Emperor’s recent declaration – All are required to offer worship to the idols! – she closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head.Then she told the Governor that she could not engage in such practices, and for a very important reason: “I am a Christian.”TAKEN FROM
Her punishment was swift and terrible. First the Roman soldiers stripped the young woman naked from the waist up. Then they whipped her mercilessly, with lashes
made of cow leather and studded with brass. They marched her half-naked around the marketplace ofCaesarea , while crowds of onlookers mocked her exposed body and called for her death. And when she continued to whisper from blood-flecked lips that she was a servant of the Lord Christ Jesus and a virgin who had vowed celibacy for the rest of her life, they hung her from the nearest pillar and whipped her again. For hours at a time, they slapped and kicked her, while spitting scornfully on her pain-wracked face.
made of cow leather and studded with brass. They marched her half-naked around the marketplace of
But nothing worked. The more they tortured this mild-mannered but iron-willed maiden from the Jezreel Valley
She did not die alone, however. During the same vicious purge of the Christians in Palestine in the last years of the Fourth Century, her fellow virgins Valentina and Paula – both from Caesarea – were stripped, beaten and then beheaded for refusing to deny their Savior, the Redeemer of the World. Like the virtuous Ennatha, they also perished with a prayer of thanks to Almighty God, while refusing to deny the Son of God who came down from Heaven in order to redeem the world from death and sin.
The life of Our Holy Mother Among the Saints Ennatha the Virgin-Martyr opens a window onto one of the greatest mysteries to be found in Christianity – the fact that God sometimes allows those who are most faithful and loving towards Him to be destroyed in their bodies by the enemies of the Almighty, so that others may be converted to Jesus Christ through their example.
While the records of the Holy Church Roman Empire .) One of the greatest gifts revealed to the world by the Holy Martyrs was the gift of faithfulness.
By showing us that it is possible to endure the harshest agonies without complaint – while trusting in the protection of the Almighty – these spiritual heroes were offering great praise to God, who makes such courage possible through His eternal love.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb doth cry with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, Thee I love; and seeking Thee, I now contest, and with Thy baptism am crucified and buried. I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; for Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee: accept me offered out of longing to Thee as a spotless sacrifice. Lord, save our souls through her intercessions, since Thou art great in mercy.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
We, the faithful, know thy venerable temple to be a place of healing for our souls and therefore we cry to thee: O virgin martyr Ennatha, pray unceasingly to Christ our God for us all.
