Great-martyr Kyriake of Nicomedia

Kyriake (whose name means "of the Lord") was the only daughter of devout Christian parents of Nicomedia in the late third century, born on a Sunday and given the name in honor of the day of her birth. She was raised in strict piety and from childhood had vowed her virginity to Christ. During the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, the imperial court was based at Nicomedia, and the family came under particular pressure: when a wealthy magistrate sought Kyriake in marriage and was refused, he denounced the family as Christians.

Her parents were exiled to a distant province. Kyriake was kept at Nicomedia and brought through a succession of tribunals, refusing at each to renounce Christ. The torments inflicted upon her were among the most varied in the synaxarion record: she was scourged, suspended by her hair, subjected to fire that the synaxarion says left her unharmed, given to lions that lay down at her feet, and at last condemned to be beheaded. As the executioner raised his sword, she asked for a moment to pray; she knelt, gave up her soul in prayer, and was found dead before the blade had fallen.

Her feast is kept among the Great-martyrs on July 7.