Her name, like other historical evidence, is unknown. According to the Gospel passage, she was a woman from the city of Sychar, where every day she went to Jacob’s Well to fetch water. There she met Jesus, who revealed aspects of herself to her. When talking to her, Jesus revealed that He is the living water, the water which becomes a source of water and offers eternal life. She is commemorated by the Church on two days: on the Sunday of the Samaritan, the 5th Sunday after Easter, as well as on February 26.
Saint Fotini was baptized by the Apostles on the day of Pentecost after the Resurrection of the Lord.
According to the tradition, Saint Fotini was martyred during the reign of Emperor Nero, along with her sisters and her two sons, Josiah and Victor, in Rome. They were arrested and taken to Rome, where they were tortured.
The bell tower of the Metropolitan Church of Saint Fotini in Nea Smyrni is an exact copy of the historic bell tower of the Metropolitan Church of Saint Fotini in Smyrna that was destroyed in 1922.
According to the tradition, Saint Fotini taught and was martyred in Smyrna. For this reason, the Metropolitan Church of Smyrna was dedicated to her memory, which even had a 33-meter bell tower, the tallest building in Smyrna until 1922, when it was destroyed by the Turks.
After the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Smyrna refugees created Nea Smyrni and built the Church of Saint Fotini in memory of the homonymous Metropolitan Church of Smyrna. The wood-carved iconostasis, the Despotic Throne and the holy pulpit were transferred with coordinated actions of the State, priests and residents from the Church of Saint Ioannis and are identical to those housed in the Metropolitan Church of Saint Fotini in Smyrni, which was destroyed after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
In 1974, when a Holy Metropolis of Nea Smyrni was created, the Church of Saint Fotini was established as the Metropolitan Church. In 1996, with the contribution of the Onassis Foundation, the 33-meter bell tower was built, an exact copy of the historic bell tower of the Metropolitan Church of Saint Fotini in Smyrna, which was destroyed in 1922.
Source: Estia Neas Smyrnis
