DAY OF COMMEMORATIONS OF STS. PEPRONE, MARIANE AND SHOUSHAN
Aysor
Sept 22 2009
Armenia
Today Armenian Apostolic church celebrates Day of Commemorations 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.