Commemoration of Sts. Peprone, Mariane and Shoushan, daughter of Vartan the Great

St. Peprone was from the town Nisibis and since childhood she had entered the church vowing to renounce from secular life and devote herself to the Church. As St. Hripsime, she also has been subjected to persecutions by the Roman Emperor Diokletianos. When the Emperor’s servants reach the town Nisibis in 305 A. D., the nuns living in the monastery are forced to leave the town, while Peprone, who was ill, stays in the monastery with her teacher Vren and Sister Toumayis. Heathen judge Seghinos tries to persuade the pretty nun to renounce from Christianity and promises to marry her with his noble nephew Lusimakos. In response Peprone tells that she has already become the bride of Christ vowing to remain a virgin and not to marry. Seghinos, becoming annoyed, orders to cut off first her hands and feet and than her head. Lusimakos, witnessing her death, becomes faithful and orders to bury her with proper honors, and Seghinos, witnessing the nun’s indescribable torments, goes mad and commits suicide.

St. Mariane was from Antioch in Pisidia. She was the only daughter of the town’s heathen priest and, losing her mother in childhood, she was brought up a Christian nurse. When she had already grown up, her father wishes to make her a heathen priest. The young woman refuses to renounce Christ and to serve the idols. Her father turns her off his house and she goes to her nurse. But soon she is imprisoned and beheaded.

St. Shoushan was Captain Vardan Mamikonian’s elder daughter. Her real name is Vardenie, but in the Armenian history and hagiography she is known by the name Shoushan. She was married to Vazgen, son of the Georgian consul Asousha. Although they had three sons and one daughter, her husband converts to Persian faith and marries the mother-in-low of the Persian knight Peroz. Shoushan begins to live in a small house near the church and prays all the time, always rejecting her husband’s suggestions to give up her faith and ignoring his threats. Shoushan is persecuted for 7 years, but remains unshaken in her faith. She is martyred in 470 A. D. According to the historian Ukhtanes she is buried in Yourtav.