Holy Martyr Anastasia the Deliverer

Saint Anastasia was a daughter of a rich and high born Roman. Being both beautiful and intelligent she got an excellent education. Her father was a pagan and her mother was a Christian. From her early youth, she possessed great love for the Lord Jesus Christ, guided both by her mother and a devout teacher, Chrysogonus. She learned the woes of life early in her youth. Her mother and her revered teacher were thrown into prison together with many other Christians. Visiting them Anastasia developed a deep feeling of compassion to all poor, offended and dejected people and tried to help them as much as she could.

Immediately after her mother’s death, Anastasia’s father made her marry a pagan rich landowner, Publius, against her will. He was a cruel and mean person, he tortured her harshly for her refusal to have physical relations with him. Her only consolation was to help poor people and visit the imprisoned Christians. She was giving big amounts of money away to bribe the guards so that she could have a free access to prisoners. When her husband discovered that she went secretly to the prisons of the Christian martyrs, ministering to their needs, washing their wounds and loosening their bonds, he was afraid that Anastasia would spend all of his fortune, he tortured her harshly by imprisonment and starvation. Deprived of the chance to visit the imprisoned, she wrote to her teacher Chrysogonos, "Pray for me to God, it is for my love to Him that I suffer to exhaustion." He replied, "Do not forget that the Christ walking on waters can subdue any storm."

Soon after that, by God’s providence, she was freed from her wicked husband. Publius was sent to Persia by the Emperor, and got drowned in the sea. So she started to visit not only the prisons of Rome, but also of the neighboring towns. She brought the imprisoned food and clothing, washed their wounds and paid their guards to mitigate their brutal treatment of the jailed. For those acts of mercy she was called the Deliverer from Bonds. Once she could not find the imprisoned Christians whom she had visited the day before, she found out that they were executed that night and she started to cry bitterly. The commander of the jail understood that she was also a Christian and gave her to be judged by the ruler. During the court procedure Anastasia’s high origin was revealed and all measures were taken to make her denounce her faith. But she remained true to Christ. Then she was sentenced to be tied hands and feet to four pillars and burned alive. But God willed otherwise: before the flames got started, Anastasia’s holy soul went peacefully up to heavens. It about the year of 304.

Kontakion, Tone 2:
Those in temptations and afflictions hasten to thy temple/ and are restored by the grace that dwells in thee,/ for thou dost ever pour forth healings for the world,/ O Great Martyr Anastasia.

Source: http://www.fatheralexander.org