Agathocleia is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a martyr who suffered for her Christian faith while serving as a household servant. According to her synaxarion life, she was a servant in the house of a Christian named Nicholas, whose wife Paulina was a pagan, and for eight years she endured persecution and abuse at her mistress's hands rather than renounce her faith.
Her commemoration is kept on September 17. The traditional account presents her as an example of patient endurance under prolonged domestic cruelty, refusing to the end her mistress's demand that she worship idols.
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Life and Martyrdom
The synaxarion relates that Agathocleia served in the household of a Christian named Nicholas, while his wife Paulina remained a pagan. Over the course of eight years Paulina subjected the servant to severe abuse on account of her Christian faith, beating her and forcing her to walk barefoot over sharp stones.
In an outburst of cruelty Paulina is said to have broken Agathocleia's rib with a blow from a hammer and cut out her tongue. Despite this, the saint would not yield to her mistress's demand that she worship idols. Paulina then locked her in prison and tried to starve her, but according to the tradition the martyr did not perish, for birds are said to have brought her food each day. At length Paulina came to the prison and killed her. The manner of her death is recorded differently across sources, some accounts describing burning rather than the prison killing related in the synaxarion.
Veneration
Agathocleia is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on September 17 and is also honored in the Roman Catholic Church. A traditional dating places her death around the year 230.
In the West she is remembered as the patron saint of Mequinenza in Aragón, Spain, where festivals in her honor (as Santa Agatoclia) are held from September 16 to 20 and a confraternity is dedicated to her.
