THE LIFE OF SAINT IRENE
The holy and glorious nymph of Christ the King Irene, was born in 315 AD. She came from the great city of Magedo in Persia and was the only daughter of King Licinius, who was also a pagan of Licinia.
Her first name was Penelope. She was also very beautiful physically and intelligent to such an extent that her father built a tall and majestic tower for her to live in. Trying to give her the greatest possible education, he entrusted a venerable and pious elder named Apellianus to teach her daily.
One day the Saint saw as if in a vision a dove entering the tower with an olive branch in its beak and placing it on the golden table that her father had made for her and then leaving. In the same way followed an eagle appeared leaving a wreath entwined with flowers and then a raven leaving a snake. When the Saint woke up she wanted to know what all the things she envisioned meant.
Unable to explain them on her own, she sought the advice of her teacher, and he, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, gave her the correct explanation, telling her the following: "The dove symbolizes the divine teaching and the divine knowledge that you wish to learn. The olive branch signifies the Divine baptism. The eagle signifies the crown of victory which you are about to receive fighting for your faith. And the raven signifies the sorrows and sorrows you will suffer when you undertake the good fight of martyrdom".
Since then, the Saint was possessed by a divine zeal to learn the mysteries of God and the right faith. Because she was locked in the tower, she begged the Lord at night to find the right way so that her prayer would be heard. That's what happened. God sent her an Angel who announced to her that from that moment on Penelope will now be called Irene and that the next day she will be visited by the disciple of the Apostle Paul, Timothy, who will baptize her after first teaching her all that she must he also knows what he wishes to know.Indeed, the next day, through the mediation of the same Angel, the apostle Timothy appeared next to her, who, bringing with him the Holy Gospel, the acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul, taught her precisely the mysteries and doctrines of the Church.
He then baptized her, administered the sacraments to her and after leaving her the Gospel, left in the same miraculous way he came. Reading the Holy Gospel and the other sayings of the divinely inspired fathers, Irene becomes graceful and her soul becomes even more enlightened, and she shares this joy with the 13 female healers that her father had locked inside the tower to serve her. The Saint then destroys all the idols that were inside the tower by knocking them out of the windows, and when the time comes to sacrifice to the idols because her father asked her to, she refuses to do so ,revealing to him that she is now a Christian and that she believes to only God.
Her father then, blinded by anger, orders his only daughter to be tied up and put in the stable between the horses so that they will trample her. But instead of this happening, the horses furiously moved against Licinius and after first breaking his right arm, they trampled him to death. Immediately afterwards the animals themselves freed the Saint from her bonds and blessed her in a human voice. All those present wondered the event, but they wondered more when the Saint prayed and resurrected her father who, believing in the real God, glorified his Holy name.
After that, both Licinius and his wife and 3000 people received Holy Baptism. The life of Saint Irene continues through constant trials and martyrdoms. King Zedekiah, the successor of Licinius, tries to convince the Saint to sacrifice to the idols and after her refusal, he tortures her by throwing her prone into a pit with poisonous reptiles, from which she emerges unharmed after 14 days. Neither the sawing of her feet nor the wheel prevents her from teaching the Savior Christ. But He, in His turn, always makes her healthy with the supervision of His holy Angels.Tens of thousands of pagans are baptized because of her teaching. Gradually the Kings Savor, Numerianos and Savorios torture her and the last one decapitates her. She placed in a grave but resurrected again with the mediation of an angel since "where God wills, nature is defeated" and travels through clouds to Ephesus she performed many miracles and became an occasion for many to convert to the right faith.
Finally, in the city of Ephesus, after displaying her teacher Apellianus, who had also become a Christian, a tomb in which no one had been buried into,so as to place her body, she surrendered her spirit to God whom she loved so much and for His glory sacrificed everything.
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