Giving witness to the faith

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Dorothy who died a martyr’s death in 303 at the hands of Governor Sapricius. She lived in Caesarea. Her parents were put to death by Diocletian, one of the greatest persecutors of early Christians. Following their death, Dorothy was invited to Governor Sabricius’s home where they were waiting for her. They stretched her out on a rack of sacrifice and offered marriage if she consented or would be put to death if she refused to sacrifice to pagan gods.  When she refused, she was given over to two pagan women who had given up the faith. The hope was that these women would convince her to give in to the governor's demands.  God used Dorothy to set the hearts of these women on fire with love for Christ.  She was again tortured. Like St. Steven when he was being stoned to death, Dorothy’s face was radiant with a divine aura, as she endured the sufferings to which she was subjected. Her torturers asked her why she was so filled with joy.  She was, in fact, anticipating the joy of heaven and inwardly praising God, as she was sentenced to be beheaded. Her words: “Blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! Who does call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber.

On the way to being beheaded, a young lawyer by the name of Theophilus taunted her to send him apples and roses from the garden of her Spouse.  Shortly after she died, St. Dorothy granted his wish. A small child stood by his side while he was still chuckling about his challenge to Dorothy and presented him with three apples and three roses from the heavenly nuptial chamber. He realized that the child was an angel in disguise and that the fruit and the flowers were not of earthly origin.  Theophilus was converted and he, too, was martyred for his faith.

The faith is real! Heaven is real!  The testimony of current day “martyrs” continues to proclaim that a nuptial chamber awaits each of us who continue to proclaim the faith and witness to Jesus in a pagan, secularistic world that is bent on destroying the evidence of the God presence in our midst.