The life of St Zlata
A Turkish man saw her gathering wood with other village women and had her seized, hoping to make her his wife and bring her into Islam. For six months he and those around him tried every means of persuasion, and when she would not yield, they turned to threatening her parents and sisters, who in their fear begged her to give way, if only in appearance. Zlata answered that anyone who urged her to deny Christ was no longer kin to her, for she counted Christ as her true father and the saints as her true family.
Her captors then held her in darkness for three months, beating her daily, cutting her skin, and driving a heated rod through her ears. Her spiritual father, a monk of Mount Athos who was nearby, later set down the account of her suffering. In the end, unable to break her, they bound her to a tree and killed her. Christians recovered what they could of her body in secret and buried her with reverence.
