The life of Bassa and Her Sons
Each of the boys refused to sacrifice to idols and each was tortured in turn and put to death, the eldest torn with iron claws, the second flayed, the youngest broken in his bones and joints, all bearing it, tradition says, without crying out. Sources differ on whether they suffered at that Macedonian Edessa or at Larissa in Thessaly, their homeland.
Bassa herself was imprisoned and, weakened by hunger, is said to have been sustained by an angel, and to have come through further trials by fire, water, and wild beasts unharmed. Thrown into the sea to drown, she was, in the Church's memory, lifted from the water and carried to a ship, some believing her rescuers were her own sons who had gone before her. She reached land only to be arrested again, and was beaten and beheaded, completing the witness she had first given her children.
