Saint Alexandra of Amisus and companions

Almost nothing is known about Alexandra of Amisus, and for once it’s worth telling exactly that: how you can know anything at all about a person who died sixteen hundred years ago. There are two sources about her. The first is a brief eulogy in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, that is, in the liturgical calendar of the Church of Constantinople, probably drawn from an account of the martyrdom that has been lost. The second is the passio of Theodotus of Ancyra, in which three names appear — Alexandra, Euphrasia and Matrona — within a group of seven virgins drowned by the prefect Theotecnus. In the other three names of that group (Julitta, Phaine and Tecusa), scholars recognize the same women the first source calls Juliana, Euphemia and Theodosia. The most likely conclusion is that the two groups are one and the same, and that the eulogy in the Synaxarion comes from the passio of Theodotus itself. This is what remains: seven women, a city on the Black Sea, a prefect, the water. And the date, March 20, which someone kept in mind long enough for it to reach us. If your name is Alexandra or Alexander, today is your name day.