The Holy Martyrs Kyriake, Kaleria, and Mary of Caesarea in Palestine
Life
Kyriake, Kaleria, and Mary were three Christian women of Caesarea in Palestine who, by the synaxarion accounts, turned away from the pagan world to live together in prayer and were put to death during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian (reigned 284-305). The name Kaleria also appears in the form Valeria. They are commemorated together as a single group of martyrs on June 7.
The surviving record of their lives is brief. It places them in a region with deep early-Christian associations and presents them as companions who withdrew from public life to devote themselves to prayer, asking that the persecution of Christians might end. When they were brought before the authorities and pressed to renounce Christ, they confessed their faith, were tortured, and died as martyrs.
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Life and Martyrdom
According to the OCA Synaxarion, the three women had abandoned paganism and settled in a solitary place, where they spent their lives in prayer and besought the Lord that the persecution against Christians would come to an end. A local governor attempted to force them to renounce their faith and worship idols. They instead confessed their faith in Christ, and for this they were tortured and received the crown of martyrdom.
A fuller English account adds details transmitted by tradition: that the three were kindred spirits who came to Christianity through the influence of an elderly wanderer, that they took refuge in an abandoned hut to pray, and that they were betrayed to the authorities by a rejected suitor before being put to death. Their martyrdom fell within the Diocletianic persecution, which preceded the wider toleration of Christians under the Edict of Milan issued by Constantine and Licinius in 313.
