St. Demiana
On the 13th of the Coptic month of Tubah, the blessed St. Demiana was martyred. This chaste and fighter virgin, was the daughter of the Governor of the northern delta valley of the Nile. She was his only daughter. When she was a year old, her father, known as Marcos or Mark, took her to the monastery of Al-Maymah. He offered alms, candles and oblations so that God might bless her and keep her in God’s care.
When she was fifteen years old, her father wanted her to be wed. She refused, and told him that she had vowed herself a bride to Christ. When she saw that her father was pleased with her intention, she asked him to build her a place where she could worship God in seclusion with her virgin friends. He fulfilled her wish and built the house she wanted. She lived in it with forty other virgins. They spent their time reading the holy scripture and in worship.
Shortly after, Emperor Diocletian sent for Demiana's father, and ordered him to worship the idols. He refused at first, but after the Emperor appeased him, he obeyed this order and worshipped the idols and forsook the Creator of the Universe. When he returned to his official seat, Demiana knew what had transpired, and rushed to meet him. She did not greet him, but said, "What is it that I heard about you? I would have preferred to hear about your death rather than to hear that you have renounced your faith and forsaken the God Who created you from non-existence into being, to worship gods made by hands. Take note that if you do not return to your first faith and renounce the worship of stones, you are not my father and I am not your daughter," and she left him.
Her father was greatly moved by the words of his daughter, and he wept bitterly. In haste, he went to Diocletian and confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Emperor could not convince him with threats and promises, he ordered him beheaded.
When Diocletian knew that it was Demiana that turned her father back to Christ, he sent a prince to try to first gently convince her to worship idols, but if she disobeyed him, he would behead her. The prince went to her with two hundred soldiers and the instruments of torture. When he arrived at her palace, he said to her, "I am a messenger sent from Emperor Diocletian. I came to call upon you according to the Emperor's orders, to worship his gods, so that he can grant you all that you want." The saint shouted in his face saying, "May God denounce the messenger and the one by whom he was sent. Don't you have any shame at all to call stones and wood gods which are inhabited by devils? There is no god in heaven or on earth except one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Creator, the Everlasting, Who is everywhere, Who knows all the secrets, and Who can cast you into the eternal fire. As for me, I am the maidservant of my Master and my Savior Jesus Christ, and His Good Father and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, Him I confess and upon Him I depend, and in His Name I die, and by Him I live forever."
The prince became exceedingly angry and ordered her to be placed into a squeezing press until her blood poured out of her body. The virgins were standing weeping over her. When they put her in prison, the angel of the Lord appeared to her, touched her body with his illumined wings, and she was healed of all her wounds. The prince used all his evil imagination to torture the blessed St. Demiana; tearing of her flesh and placing her in boiling oil. Through it all the Lord raised her up safely. When the prince saw that all his attempts were in vain, before the steadfastness of this pure virgin he ordered her beheaded, and all the other virgins with her. Thus, they all received the crowns of martyrdom.
Lessons from this story
Daughter: I believe this story is one of true strength. When you think about it, a parent is supposed to be the wise, strong and protector of his children or child, but in...