From the Prologue of Ochrid
Three sisters by birth, from a certain place in Bithynia of Asia. Raised in the Christian spirit, they withdrew from the city into the wilderness, desiring to raise their minds to God and free themselves from all the deceptions of the world, and so to live out this life in purity and virginity as true brides of Christ. They gave themselves to great labor, fasting, and prayer, until God adorned them with the gift of wonder-working. When sick people began to be brought to them for healing, they became famous beyond their own will. A certain prince named Fronton heard of them and dragged them to trial. Seeing them, the prince was amazed at the beauty of their faces. For even though they were great ascetics and their bodies emaciated, their faces were radiant, illumined by inner peace and the grace of God. The governor first used flattery and promised to send them to the emperor, who would marry them to his noblemen, but when he became convinced that all his flattery and promises had no effect on these brides of Christ the Lord, he ordered that Menodora be tortured first and cast her sisters into prison. After fierce torments the prince cried out to Menodora, wounded and bloody: "Offer sacrifice to the gods!" To this the holy martyr answered: "Do you not see: I am doing nothing else but offering my whole self as a sacrifice to my God?" When Saint Menodora expired in her torments, the prince brought out the other two sisters and set them beside the dead body of Menodora, and pointing to the dead body of their sister counseled them to renounce Christ. But as they remained unshakable, he put them also to death with fierce torments. At that moment thunder struck from heaven and slew the heartless Fronton and his servants. Christians honorably buried the bodies of the holy martyrs of God. They suffered between the years 305 and 311, in the time of Maximian Galerius, and reposed in the Kingdom of Christ.
