The Orthodox Church commemorates today St. Hierotheos, Bishop of Athens, who was a member of the Areopagus Supreme Court, just like St. Dionysius whom we commemorated yesterday.
We also commemorate Holy Martyr Adauctus and his daughter St. Callisthene. Adauctus was from Ephesus and was appointed governor by Emperor Maximin.
Maximin asked Callisthene, the daughter of Adauctus, to marry him, but her father did not want to give her to an idolater. Therefore, after the emperor’s emissaries confiscated his property, they banished him from the kingdom and then he was beheaded.
His daughter Callisthene disguised herself as a young man and concealed herself in Nicomedia. She, later on, went to Thrace where she lodged with a family.
The Saint healed their blind daughter, and the girl’s parents, who considered Callisthene to be a man, asked him to marry her. Then St. Callisthene revealed the truth and they praised God.
Callisthene decided to leave in order to follow an ascetic way of life with humility. She also met Constantia, the sister of Constantine the Great.
She managed to take back her father’s property and also to translate his relics to Ephesus. She built a Church there in order to pay homage to him.
Source: Church of Cyprus
