Saint Glyceria ( el, Γλυκερία; died ca. 177 in
Heraclea,
Propontis
The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...
) was a Roman
virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
of the
early church.
According to Christian tradition, she was forced to pay tribute to a stone statue of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
but it was destroyed while she stood before it. The virgin was imprisoned for this, then sentenced to be
torn apart by wild animals. She, however, was not torn apart. Before the animals could render her any harm, Glyceria died a virgin
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
in Heraclea. Her relics reputedly poured forth the substance known as the
Oil of Saints
The Oil of Saints, also known as the Manna of the Saints, is "an aromatic liquid with healing properties" or "holy water (very much like myrrh)" which "is said to have flowed, or still flows, from the relics or burial places" of certain Christian ...
, and her name means "sweetness".
She is primarily recognized as a
saint in
Eastern Christianity and the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Her feast day is 13 May in Eastern Orthodox liturgics.
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20081006123136/http://saints.sqpn.com/saintg6e.htm
* http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3578
* http://www.antiochian.org/node/18611
*
Ἡ Ἁγία Γλυκερία ἡ Μάρτυς ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.
2nd-century births
2nd-century Christian martyrs
177 deaths
Myroblyte saints
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