Martyr Euphrasia of Nicaea

Euphrasia of Nicaea was a Christian virgin of the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor (Bithynia) who suffered martyrdom during the persecutions at the turn of the fourth century. By tradition she is remembered for preserving her chastity and confessing Christ in the face of torture, and she is commemorated on May 18. The surviving accounts of her life are brief, preserving little more than her name, her city, the circumstances of her death, and the period in which she suffered.

According to the synaxarion, Euphrasia was a native of Nicaea who accepted death for Christ in the reign of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century. After being subjected to many tortures, she was put to death by drowning in the sea. Her commemoration places her among the numerous virgin-martyrs of Bithynia who suffered in the last great persecution of the Roman state.

Euphrasia of Nicaea is distinct from the similarly named Euphrasia of Nicomedia, commemorated on January 19, with whom she is easily confused owing to their comparable profiles as virgin-martyrs of the same region and era. The two are recorded separately in the liturgical calendars.