Irais of Alexandria

About Irais of Alexandria

Irais—also known in church calendars as Iraida or Rhais—is remembered in the Orthodox Church as a virgin martyr associated with Alexandria. Her story is preserved in a later saint’s life rather than in a contemporary narrative. The Orthodox Church in America commemorates her on September 23. It relates that Iraida went to draw water, saw a ship carrying Christians imprisoned for their faith, and chose to join them. When the ship reached Antipolis in Egypt, she was reportedly the first of the group to be tortured and beheaded.

This account is a hagiographic tradition. It should not be expanded into a precise biography: sources vary on whether the place name is Antipolis or Antinoopolis, on the spelling of her name, and on the feast date. A medieval Byzantine Menologion, preserved in the Vatican Library, is evidence that a figure commemorated as Irais belonged to the liturgical memory of the eastern church by the manuscript’s date. It is not contemporary evidence for the reported events. The profile therefore records the received cult story while leaving exact dates and family details unstated.