Translation from the Book

Ὁ Θεός στήν ἱστορία τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, Βοήθημα Κατωτέρου Κατηχητικοῦ Γ΄,

ἐκδ. «Χριστιανική Ἐλπίς» Ὀρθόδοξη Ἀδελφότητα, Θεσσαλονίκη 2016, σσ. 111-115

   Imagine you are walking through a vast territory where everything is covered in snow and suddenly you come across a beautiful, fragrant flower. That seems wonderful and strange at the same time. How has this flower managed to survive the frost and bloom during the hard winter? Like this flower, the Saint we are going to talk about, spread the scent of Christ during the dark years of Ottoman slavery. Her memory is celebrated on the 28th of February.
   Greece is under the Turkish yoke in 1751. A pious family lives in the small village of Avisoka -now Ossa- just a few kilometres from Thessaloniki. The parents kept their faith in God alive in their hearts and brought up their only daughter, Kyranna, with it. She grew into a beautiful young woman whose face reflected her virtue and kindness. Her beauty impressed a subashi who had come to her village to collect taxes from the enslaved Greeks for the Turks. He was a janissary, which means that he was born by Greek parents but he was forcefully taken by the Turks and brought up as a Turk. When he saw Kyranna, he wanted to make her his wife. He approached her and asked her to deny Christ and convert to Islam, that is, to promise to worship Allah. He promised her a prosperous life with riches, titles, honors, fame and all kinds of pleasure. She answered firmly: “It is better for me to die than to deny Christ!”
  The janissary persisted. He tried to flatter her: “You are so beautiful! It would be a pity to sacrifice your youth and your life! You deserve titles and riches at my side.” Kyranna wasn’t moved and bravely responded; “My youth and my whole life belong to Christ!”
  The subashi was enraged. He couldn’t accept such an insult, to be so blatantly rejected by a young slave. He started shouting threats that he would torture her severely. Kyranna didn’t cower and said fearlessly; “I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian!”. But she would pay the price for her words.
  They sent her to the judge in Thessaloniki and they slandered her. They lied that Kyranna had agreed to convert to Islam and marry the subashi but then she changed her mind. Kyranna calmly responded; “I am a Christian and I belong to my Lord Jesus Christ. I have loved Him since my childhood. I am ready to shed my blood for His love. This is my final answer.”
  The Turks were embarrassed by the young Christian, so they decided to put her in prison. But the subashi was not satisfied with this punishment. He went to the prison every day, bringing along other janissaries with him and they tortured Kyranna mercilessly. They beat her till she fainted. The other prisoners who witnessed this injustice protested, but this made the Turks even more violent. Before they left, they ordered the prison guard to torture her even more. Indeed, at night, he hung her by her armpits with chains and beat her with any object he could find. He left her hanging to suffer her pains and freeze in the winter cold. It was only when he had calmed down a little that a Christian guard pleaded with him to let him take her down.
  Kyranna did not complain at all, but endured everything in silence. She never stopped praying.
It was the 28th of February 1751. The prison guard had beaten her so badly that night that he had slashed her body. Christ called her to be close to Him. The blessed time had come for her soul to meet Christ and receive the glorious crown of heaven.  
  The other prisoners immediately understood what had happened, because at dawn a light shone in the prison cell where the saint’s body was hanging. A lightning flash surrounded the saint’s body and the whole prison was illuminated. The christian prisoners started praying; “Lord have mercy on us”, the Jews fell on their face, and some Turkish women cried; “The abuse of this poor Greek has fallen on us like lightning to burn us”. The prison guard trembled with fear and he ordered the christian guard to take her down. Then the light faded. But a wonderful scent remained in the prison for a long time.
  The Turks were so upset by these miraculous events that they didn’t prevent the Christians from taking the body of Kyranna. They buried her respectfully and distributed pieces of her blood-stained dress as a blessing. They praised God for strengthening young Kyranna to remain faithful and thanked Him for showing her sanctity with the light and the scent in her prison.
Today there is a magnificent church in her name in the village of Ossa. Until 2011, people could only kneel before her icon, but on the 12th of September 2011, her relic was found while digging under the Sanctuary of the church of Taxiarches! Since then, many pilgrims have visited her church to venerate her sanctified relic and ask for her intercession.

A Courageous Witness

  How touching is the story of saint Kyranna! There are so many aspects of her life to admire. This young girl was truly a fragrant flower in the freezing cold of slavery.
  Would you like to follow Kyranna’s example of faith and her courageous witness? Today, we are not officially asked to change our faith nor are we threatened with a death. But we do face another challenge; people sometimes make fun of us or are sarcastic towards us for
  • going to church and Sunday school
  •  making the sign of the cross when we pass a church
  •  living our lives the way Christ wants us to live, not the way many people want us to live.
  We are in a difficult situation because the people making fun us may be our classmates, colleagues, neighbors or relatives.
  So what can we do?
  √  Will we be influenced by those who do not care about God’s will?
  √  Will we be too embarrassed to make the sign of the cross?
  √  Will our love for Church and Sunday school diminish?
  √  Will our fragrant flower of faith survive the climate of irony and unfaithfulness?
  √  Will the light of Christ continue to shine in us to enlighten those around us?
  Fortunately, there are people who are like saint Kyranna! The fire of faith is kindled in their hearts and they say, as she did; “Since I was a little child, I have loved Christ and I want to love Him all of my life!” Thanks to these people, the Light will not be extinguished in the world! Hope will not be lost in the freezing cold of unfaithfulness.
  Let us ask for the intercession of Saint Kyranna, who bravely proclaimed her faith, so that we may become like fragrant flowers for Christ, eternal flowers of heaven!

Saint Kyranna I ask for your help
to be always faithful.
Like a flower in the freezing cold
to my Christ praiseful!