Today the Orthodox Church honors the memory of the Holy Women Saints Pelagia and Taisia and Saint Hieromartyr Artemon.
The virgin Pelagia was from the famous historical city of Antioch, Syria, and was coming from a glorious family.
When the ruler of the region learned that she was a Christian and was studying the Holy Gospel, he sent soldiers to arrest her.
Saint Pelagia prayed to God to take her to him pure and she surrendered her immaculate body and spirit to The Lord.
The prostitute Saint Taisia, pushed into the wrong habit and the corruption of her body by her own mother but when she learned that there is salvation and redemption close to Jesus Christ she repented of her corrupting deeds, she distributed her possessions to the poor and devoted herself to monasticism. She spent the rest of her life in peace, with prayer, tears and sighs, an expression of her genuine remorse.
Both Saints, Pelagia and Taisia, are examples of humble people and heroic women, as well as proof that true repentance rests and sanctifies man whatever his moral decline might be. At the same time, man with these conditions is led to the doctor of souls and bodies, the Maker and Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who with His three-day Resurrection enlightened and deified human nature.
Source: Church of Cyprus
