On this day, June 3 according to the Julian Calendar (June 16 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Venerable Ieria (†c. 320).
The Venerable Ieria was born and raised in a pagan household. She later became the wife of a Roman senator, but was widowed after only seven months. In the Syrian city of Sevapolos, she learned that near Nisibis, in a women’s monastery, there lived a young nun named Febronia who was renowned for her strict ascetic life. Disguising herself as a beggar, Ieria visited the blessed elder and spoke with her throughout the night. Returning home, the future saint was baptized and persuaded her parents to follow her example.
During the persecution of Christians under Diocletian (284-305), most of the inhabitants of the Nisibis monastery fled, while the holy Febronia stood before the tribunal and openly confessed Christ, for which she was brutally tortured. Ieria fearlessly rebuked the executioners for their cruelty. The judge ordered her to be seized and tortured as well, but when he learned that she was the widow of a Roman senator, he changed his decision.
The holy Ieria wept bitterly for her martyred spiritual mother, Febronia, and grieved that she had not been found worthy to die for Christ. With tears she begged the abbess Briena to receive her in the monastery in the place of Febronia. She then donated all her wealth to the convent and labored there until her repose. The venerable mother fell asleep peacefully in the Lord in 320.
May the intercessions of the Venerable Ieria be with us all.