"Afra may originally have been from Cyprus. She was born to pagan parents and was dedicated at birth to the service of Venus. She may even have worked in a brothel run by her family for a time.
However, she was not long to remain in such darkness and iniquity. During the persecutions under Diocletian, the local bishop Narcissus was compelled to take refuge with Afra and her mother. He soon converted their whole family to the faith of Christ.
Upon later being herself denounced as a Christian to the authorities, she boldly refused the emperor’s order to sacrifice to the pagan gods, instead fearlessly proclaiming Christ.
Afra was arrested and brought before the judge named Gaius, who
She replied: “The sins which I have committed before I knew the true God are sufficient; wherefore I cannot now do that which thou commandest. I never will do so: it would be adding a new insult to my God.”
The judge having ordered her to repair to the temple, she answered with great courage: “My temple is Jesus Christ.”
Gaius said: “Thy Christ esteemeth thee unworthy of him; in vain thou callest him thy God; he will have nothing to do with thee; a common prostitute cannot be called a Christian.”
“True,” replied Afra, “I am unworthy of this name, but my God, who chooseth not persons according to their merits, but according to his own goodness, hath been pleased to accept me.”
“If thou wilt not sacrifice, I shall cause thee to be stripped and whipped publicly, to thy great shame” Gaius said.
“I am ashamed only of my sins,” Afra responded.
She was condemned to death by fire on a small island in the Lech River, with her remains being buried at a distance from the place of her martyrdom. around the year 304.
Her mother and her maids (viz., Ligna, Eunonia, and Eutropia) later suffered the same fate, for interring her in a burial vault."
Orthodox
