The life of St Hermione, daughter of Apostle Philip
In that city Hermione went on to master the healing arts, and through her, tradition holds, many Christians found relief from their afflictions by the power of Christ working in her hands; she came to be known across the region as a great healer, remembered as the founder of Ephesus's first Christian hospital.
Her reputation eventually reached the emperor Trajan, who while passing through Ephesus toward a campaign against Persia around the year 114 had her brought before him and pressed her to renounce her faith. She would not. By the time her sentence was finally carried out, Trajan had died and Hadrian held the throne; it was under his authority that she was led outside the city and beheaded, in the year 117.
She is remembered both as an unmercenary physician who asked nothing for her healing and as a martyr who held to her faith through an emperor's persuasion and, at the last, an emperor's sword.
