Wednesday September 17 / 30 ns 2026 • Holy Martyrs Sophía, Faith, Hope, and Charity ~ Fast day ~ SAYINGS OF THE HOLY DESERT FATHERS

Diseased is my body and my soul, do thou make me worthy of Divine guidance and thy care, O thou who alone art God’s Mother, for thou art good and the Birthgiver of the Good.

Wednesday

September 17 / 30 ns 2026

 • Holy Martyrs Sophía,

Faith, Hope, and Charity

~ Fast day ~ 

Sophia, Faith, Hope and Charity all lived and suffered in Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Sophia was wise, as her name implies. She was left a widow, and had established herself and her daughters well in the Christian Faith. 

When the persecuting hand of Hadrian extended even over the virtuous home of Sophia, Faith was only twelve years old; Hope, ten years old; and Charity (Love), nine years old. Brought before the emperor, these four held each other's hands "like a woven wreath," humbly but steadfastly confessed their faith in Christ the Lord and refused to offer sacrifices to the pagan idol Artemis. Before their suffering, the mother encouraged her daughters to endure to the end: "Your heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, is eternal health, inexpressible beauty and eternal life. When your bodies are slain by torture, He will clothe you in incorruption and the wounds on your bodies will shine in the heavens as stars.'' One by one the torturers inflicted cruel torments, first on Faith, then on Hope, and then on Love. They beat them, slashed them, cast them into fire and boiling pitch, and finally beheaded them with the sword one after another. 

Sophia took the dead bodies of her daughters outside the town and honorably buried them. She remained at their grave for three days and three nights, praying to God. Then she gave her spirit to God, flying off to Paradise, where the blessed souls of her glorious daughters awaited her.

Ephesians 5:25-33 KJV

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Saint Mark 7:14-15, 17-24 KJV

14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

SAYINGS OF THE

HOLY DESERT FATHERS

A certain brother went to Abba Poemen on the second Sunday in the Fast of Forty Days and repeated to him his thoughts, and sighing over what the old man had told him, he said to him, "I had almost kept myself from coming here today"; and the old man said, " Why?" Then the brother said, " I said in my mind, Peradventure during the fast the door will be closed against you"; and Abba Poemen said to him, " We do not learn to shut a door made of wood, but to close the door of the tongue."

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