Saint Juliana

December 21

Saint Juliana was born to illustrious pagan parents and was betrothed to the noble pagan senator Eleusius who wished to marry the virgin as quickly as possible. Without her family knowing, Juliana had come to know the Truth through the Christian faith and resolved to preserve her virginity for our Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason, she tried with all her might to delay her marriage to Eleusis through various distractions. The most prominent was her apparent love for worldly status and stated that she would only marry him if he became Prefect of Nicomedia. After much time and effort, Eleusis worked incessantly and achieved this goal. Having run out of excuses, Juliana finally confessed her faith in Christ and demanded of her fiancé that she would only agree to marry him if he abandoned his pagan religion and follow Christ. Eleusis refused and her parents took her to court for adhering to a forbidden religion. She was judged by the tribunal of the Prefect (now her fiancé) and ordered that she be stripped, beaten, scourged, and then hung by her hair. The devil appeared to her in prison disguised as an angel and encouraged her to sacrifice to the idols, but she saw straight through this scheme. She was thrown into a boiling cauldron of lead which did her no harm. Through this miracle, she converted 630 pagan spectators who were then all beheaded. Finally, the Prefect ordered Juliana to be beheaded and thus she gave up her soul at the age of eighteen.

Ἀπολυτίκιον
Ἦχος δ’. Ταχὺ προκατάλαβε.
Ὡς νύμφη πανάμωμος καὶ ἀθληφόρος σεμνή, τῷ Λόγῳ νενύμφευσαι τοῦ ἀθανάτου Πατρός, Ἰουλιανὴ ἔνδοξε, σὺ γὰρ φθαρτὸν μνηστήρα παριδοῦσα, ἐμφρόνως ἤθλησας ὑπὲρ φύσιν καὶ τὸν ὄφιν καθεῖλες· καὶ νῦν ταῖς τοῦ νυμφίου σου τρυφᾶς φαιδρότησι.
Κοντάκιον.
Ἦχος α΄. Χορὸς ἀγγελικός.
Παρθένος παγκαλής, καὶ περίδοξος Μάρτυς, ὦ Ἰουλιανή, ἀληθῶς ἀνεδείχθης, διὸ ἀμφοτέρωθεν, διαλάμπουσα ἔνδοξε, πρὸς οὐράνιον, μετεβιβάσθης νυμφῶνα, ἱκετεύουσα, διὰ παντὸς Ἀθληφόρε, ὑπὲρ τῶν τιμώντων σε.

Troparion — Tone 4
All-blameless bride and venerable trophy-bearer, / You are wedded to the Word of the immortal Father, O glorious Juliana. / For having wisely disdained your mortal bridegroom, / You strove beyond nature to destroy the serpent, / And now you delight in the joys of your Bridegroom!
Kontakion — Tone 1
You were a beautiful virgin, wise Juliana, / and as your soul was wounded with divine love, / your body was also pierced with the wounds of martyrdom adorning you as a bride of Christ and His martyr. / Now as you dwell in the heavenly bridal chamber, / you pray for us all.

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