90 Venerable Sisters of Mantinea in Asia Minor

Commemorated on July 27

When St. Anthusa built a women's monastery and a church dedicated to St. Anna, ninety nuns gathered around her. The nuns were known for their obedience to their abbess and for their spiritual discipline.

During the iconoclastic controversy, Emperor Constantine Copronymus persecuted monks and nuns, who defended the veneration of icons. He sent soldiers to the monasteries in order to persuade monastics to agree with his heretical views, and to punish those who would not submit to his authority.

St. Anthusa and her nuns were among those who were interrogated and tortured.

By permission of the Orthodox Church in America (www.oca.org)