Continued 👇🏾
✍🏾When the king heard Saint Arsema’s confession, he was filled with rage. He called his servants and ordered that the lions kept in the palace be released upon her and the Christians. But by the power of God, the lions became gentle. Instead of harming the faithful, they turned against the king and his servants, chasing them until they fled and hid themselves.
✍🏾Enraged by the steadfastness of the Christians in their martyrdom, the king ordered that they be imprisoned and starved. On the fifth day, God filled the prison with heavenly light and sent down food and drink from heaven, which they received in bowls and cups.
✍🏾When the king saw this miracle, he brought them out and cast them into the fire. But God sent the Archangel Gabriel as he saved the three kids he also delivered to them unharmed from the flames.
✍🏾Seeing that the faith of the Christians could not be shaken, the king summoned his advisors and said, “What shall we do?” Following their counsel, he decided that all should be killed by the sword.
✍🏾As the martyrs were being slain, Saint Arsema beheld crowns of victory descending from heaven upon and awaited her own turn with holy longing. She prayed earnestly to God to strengthen her for martyrdom, and she encouraged the faithful, saying:
✍🏾 “Be courageous and steadfast.Do not let the suffering of this world overcome you.Do not be afraid.”
✍🏾When the king had finished killing the others, he turned to Saint Arsema and shouted in anger, saying, “I will not kill you as quickly as the rest.” He subjected her to severe and painful torture, cutting off both of her breasts. When this cruelty did not satisfy him, he ordered that both of her eyes be gouged out.
✍🏾While she endured this suffering, our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, appeared to her and granted her eyes of heavenly light, strengthening her and filling her with divine consolation.
✍🏾At last, when the king grew weary of torturing her, he commanded that she be beheaded by the sword on the twenty-ninth of Meskerem, together with the remaining holy virgins. Thus, they all received the crown of martyrdom.
As the holy prophet David said in the Psalms:
👉🏾“I have made a covenant with My chosen ones.”
✍🏾So also did our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ establish His covenant with Saint Arsema, His faithful martyr.
May the prayers, blessings, intercession, and covenant of the martyr Saint Arsema be with us all. Amen.
May the name of the Holy God be praised forever and ever in every tongue that He has created, today and always.
May the blessings of God's mother, the virgin, and the cross be upon us.
Amen.
© John's Repentance
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