Photina

The title of this article is ambiguous. The article here deals with the topic of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's fountain from the perspective of Greek tradition and the Eastern Church. For ecclesiastical tradition, exegesis and iconography in Western Europe see the article Jakobsbrunnen ; For further meanings of the name, see the article Photina (disambiguation) .

Saint Photina stands with a jug in her hand in front of Jacob's fountain near Sychar.

Photina ( Gr. Φωτεινή "the enlightened one") († 66 in Rome or Carthage ) is in Greek tradition the Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at Jacob's well . She is venerated as a saint and counted among the great martyrs and apostles .

Jesus and the Samaritan woman

The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is described in the Gospel of John (Chapter 4). Then Jesus sat down at Jacob's well near Sychar in Samaria on the way from Jerusalem to Galilee , when a Samaritan woman (not named in the Bible) came and was asked by Jesus to give him a drink. When she pointed out to him that Jews and Samaritans did not socialize with one another, he explained that he had to give water that would quench any thirst. The Samaritan woman then asked him to give her such water as well. Jesus explained to her that he knew she had had five husbands but was now living with someone she was not married to. The Samaritan woman, impressed by the prophetic gift of Jesus, confessed that she believed in the coming of Christ, the Messiah, and that Jesus identified himself as that. The new disciples were amazed that Jesus was talking to a woman. The Samaritan woman returned to the city and confessed to Christ.

Martyrdom legend

The Samaritan woman was baptized by the disciples in the name of Photina. She converted her five sisters Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve and Kyriake and her two sons Joseph and Viktor to Christianity . After the martyrdom of Peter and Paul , she moved to Carthage with her sisters and son Joseph to spread the teachings of Christ. She is said to have died there as a martyr under Emperor Nero .

After Dimitri von Rostow , her eldest son Viktor had distinguished himself in the Roman army in Asia Minor in the fight against the barbarians and had been appointed commander of Attalia . He was later called to Rome to persecute Christians. Sebastian, a Roman official, knew that Viktor was a Christian and asked him to give up his faith to write to his relatives in Carthage so that they would no longer spread the Christian faith in the future and under no circumstances should he become Christians about planned actions against them inform. Viktor replied that he wanted to teach Christianity like his mother. When Sebastian threatened him, he felt a stitch in the eye and went blind. After four days Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him. He was then baptized and his eyesight regained immediately. His servants who saw the miracle were also baptized. When Nero was informed of this, he had the Christians brought to Rome. God appeared to the believers and he encouraged them not to give up, because Nero and all his servants would be defeated. In addition, Viktor should from now on be called Photinus ( the enlightened ), since he had enlightened many.

Photina, who had learned of the events, left Carthage and went to Rome with her sisters and Joseph and was also arrested. Nero urged them to renounce Christianity. Since they refused, he ordered their fingers to be broken. However, they did not feel any pain or suffered any injuries. Now Sebastian, Photinus and Joseph were blinded and taken to prison and Photina and her sisters were placed under the supervision of his daughter Domnina in the imperial court. But these converted Nero's own daughter, her servants and the magician who was supposed to poison Photina to Christianity.

After three years, Nero found that the prisoners could see again and had spread the Christian faith among the prisoners. He commanded the Christians to be crucified and flogged. After four days he inquired about the fate of the Christians sentenced to death. However, the messengers went blind when they reached the crucifixion site and found that an angel had delivered and healed the martyrs. Through the prayers of the crucified the messengers were healed of their blindness and they were therefore baptized.

Now Nero ordered the skin to be peeled off Photina and to be thrown into a well. Sebastian, Photinus and Josef had their legs cut off and dogs thrown to eat, and finally their skin was also peeled off. Photina's sisters had their breasts cut off and their skin peeled off. Photis who survived this were then tied their legs to two bent trees. When the ropes were cut, it was torn. All other Christians were beheaded.

Photina was pulled from the well and sent to prison for twenty days. She was brought to Nero and was supposed to sacrifice to the Roman gods. But she spat in Nero's face and refused to reveal her belief. So she was thrown back into the well, where she eventually died.

Adoration

Her head is said to be in Rome in the Church of Saint Paul Outside the Walls . Her feast day is after the martyrology Roman of the 20th March , in the Orthodox Church of February 26 and in the Armenian Apostolic Church of 31 August .

Web links

Commons : Jesus and the Samaritan Woman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Entry in www.heiligenlexikon.de
• Entry in Complete Lexicon of Saints (1858)
• Димитрий Ростовский, Жития святых , 20 марта (Russian Dimitri von Rostow, Lives of Saints , March 20)
• St. Photini, the Samaritan Woman on antiochian.org
• St Photini, The Samaritan Woman on orthodoxchristian.info

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gospel of John, 4: 5–30; 4, 39 - 41 ( Jn 4,23-26  EU )
2. ^ Short Sermons for Sunday School Teachers. in JM Sherwood, Hours at Home: A Popular Monthly devoted to Religious and Useful Literature. , Volume IV, November 1866 to April 1867, pp. 476–477. ( Online )
3. ↑ Dimitri von Rostow, The sufferings of the martyr Photina in the life of the saints
4. ↑ The roman Martyrology, March 20th at breviary.net ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.