Great Martyr Xenia of Kalamata

Xenia of Kalamata was a Christian woman of the Peloponnese, in southern Greece, who is venerated as a great martyr for confessing Christ and refusing to renounce her faith during the persecutions of the late third and early fourth centuries. The tradition places her birth at Kalamata around the year 291 and her martyrdom there on May 3, 318. She is commemorated on May 3.

According to her synaxarion, Xenia was born to devout Christian parents named Nicholas and Despina, who had come from Italy. She drew the attention of the local magistrate, called Dometian (or Domitianos), who sought to take her as his wife. When she refused him because he would not accept Christ and remained an idolater, she was imprisoned, abused, and subjected to severe tortures before being put to death. The account relates that numerous miracles accompanied her sufferings, leading pagan onlookers to embrace Christianity.

Although she was held in obscurity for centuries, Xenia is known in Orthodox tradition as "the Newly-Revealed," after her veneration was renewed in the twentieth century. She should not be confused with Saint Xenia of Rome (also called Eusebia) or with the much later Saint Xenia of Saint Petersburg, the fool-for-Christ; these are distinct saints.