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Biography

Metrodora

Portrait of Metrodora

About Metrodora

The Orthodox Church commemorates Metrodora together with Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora as martyrs on September 10. The OCA life identifies the three as sisters from Bithynia and gives a shared account of their Christian witness. These are claims of the received hagiographical tradition, not details independently confirmed by contemporary records.The source history counsels restraint. The Orthodox Encyclopedia identifies an early long Passion (BHG 1272z) published from a manuscript dated 1039, a later Metaphrastic version (BHG 1273), and shorter notices in Byzantine Synaxaria. A 2018 University of Vienna dissertation, however, lists BHG 1272z as unedited while identifying BHG 1273; it predates the Encyclopedia entry and the difference in reported publication status remains unresolved here. These sources preserve the cult and its narrative, but the sources consulted here do not establish a separate biography or an independently verified date and place of death for each woman.The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese's September Menaion and the OCA joint life document a continuing joint commemoration on September 10. Their hymns remember the three together and describe sisterly unity; liturgical memory establishes the observance, not the historicity of each episode in the Passion. This profile therefore leaves life dates, life places, and featured events empty and does not assign distinctive ordeals to this sister.

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