Today, Easter Monday, (21.4.2025) according to panelhonored the memory of Saint Alexandra Vasilissis and Saints January and Faustos.
The names that celebrate today, according to the calendar, are:
- Alexandra, Alexia, Aleko, Aleka, Sandra, Sasha *
- January
- Janus, January
- Fistos, Faistis, Phaistina
Agia Alexandra
Agia Alexandra was the wife of Emperor Diocletian (284 – 305 AD). Quite different from him, who was rough in the feelings and a friend of violence and blood, was distinguished for her calm mental mood, compassion and philanthropic life. And the grace of the Lord increased the lighting within it. And the Divine Mercy was celebrated during the martyrdom of Saint George George to feel the breath and impetus of faith in Christ.
Then, after turning to the emperor, he begged him to order the cessation of witness torture. He assumed that the Empress, unusual in such spectacles, was captured by pity unconscious and reckless. So she told her to retire. But he received the answer that such a scene is inhumane and unworthy of the crown.
And when the Emperor redeemed the name of Christ, she with a courageous voice proclaimed that he denounces the persecutors of Christians before the true God and confesses her faith in Jesus Christ.
The emperor wanted to interpret her statement as a mental disturbance. But she complained and reiterated her confession. The Diocletian then. While he demanded to exterminate the Christians, their conquest also entered the palaces and the queen herself manifested the same faith and was their lawyer. So she ordered her abduction and imprisonment.
In prison, the saint spent the night in prayer for herself and begging the Lord for his Church, who was so severely shocked. She was not interested in her life at all.
He even wished to receive martyred death, but he hesitated. She knew that for her husband there was no mercy before God, who was a fair judge, but did not want to burden his guilt for crime with her own murder, and fell towards the Most High to receive her soul from that prison, and to see them so much.
Her bond was heard. Two days before the killing of the Great Martyr George in 303 AD, she handed her last breath to prison. The queen’s example was followed by three of her followers, Apollo, Isaacos and Kodratos. Honorable and virtuous servants, dedicated to their heart to their Empress, whose knowledge they knew, they thought that her decision and her faith in Christ had to make them consider themselves without prejudice to faith in the true God and to arrange their conduct accordingly.
So they went to a Christian priest, heard him and left his home strictly faithful, illuminated by the grace of the Apostle, with the decision to follow the example of their queen. And one day they also confessed their faith.
Diocletian ordered their killing. And they were beheaded, and Apollo and Isaac was subjected to death through hunger and thirst. This torture was very painful. But they treated it with bravery, comforted by the hope that they were going to meet in the scenes of justice and bliss with the Holy Queen. Their hope was satisfied. The Church honors their memory with it on the same day.
*There are other dates that celebrate this name.