This holy woman dwelt in a monastery in the Assyrian city of Siva, where her aunt, Bryaena, served as abbess. Under the abbess’s guidance, Febronia embraced a life of strict ascetic struggle. Word of the maiden’s piety spread beyond the monastery walls. A wealthy widow named Hiera, who was still a pagan, came to visit Febronia and afterward received Holy Baptism; her parents and kinsmen also embraced the Orthodox Faith.
At that time the Emperor Diocletian ruled the land, and he sent soldiers into Assyria to root out the Christians. The imperial forces were led by Lysimachus, Selenus, and Primus. Hearing of the persecutions, the sisters of the monastery went into hiding. The soldiers found only the abbess Bryaena, her helper Thomais, and Febronia, who lay gravely ill. Lysimachus, who had been reared by a Christian mother in love for the Faith, wished in his heart to spare the nuns; but his uncle, the cruel Selenus, perceived the young man’s intent and ordered Febronia to be brought before him.
Struck by the maiden’s beauty, Selenus urged her to offer sacrifice to the idols, promising her wealth and marriage to Lysimachus if she would consent. But the maiden remained steadfast in her faith, declaring that she was betrothed to the Immortal Bridegroom. For her refusal they began to torture her cruelly. Yet the saint, in the midst of her sufferings, prayed to God: “My Saviour, forsake me not in this dread hour!”
But the tormentor would not relent. He ordered the nun to be bound to a tree and a fire kindled beneath her; then he had her teeth knocked out, her tongue torn out, and her breasts cut off. The people begged the tormentor to cease, but in his madness Selenus pressed on. At his final command, the maiden’s hands and feet were cut off. Thomais and Hiera witnessed all the saint’s sufferings. Hiera rebuked the tormentor, but neither her wealth nor her rank could help Febronia. At the end of her torture, the holy martyr was beheaded.
The martyr’s struggle pierced Lysimachus to the heart; he shut himself in his chamber and wept for the holy sufferer. As for Selenus, after the execution he could not bring himself to sit down to table. He paced for a long time through the palace; then suddenly he halted, looked upward, and was struck dumb. Bellowing like a bull, he hurled himself against a marble column and died. When the tormentor’s nephew learned of this, he said: “Great is the God of the Christians, Who alone is worthy of reverence, for He has avenged innocent blood!”
Lysimachus then gathered the martyr’s relics, placed them in a reliquary, and carried them to the abbess of the monastery. He and Primus both received Holy Baptism and were tonsured. Then the noble widow Hiera gave all her wealth to the monastery and asked to be received in Febronia’s place.
In the year 363, sixty years after her repose, the relics of the saint were translated to Constantinople.
