Quick Facts: Saints Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora
The Holy Virgins Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora
(305-311), were sisters by birth, and they were from Bithynia (Asia Minor).
Distinguished for their especial piety, the Christian sisters wanted to
preserve their virginity and avoid worldly association. They chose for
themselves a solitary place in the wilderness and spent their lives in deeds of
fasting and prayer. Reports about the holy life of the virgins soon spread
about, since through their prayers healings of the sick began to occur.
The
Bithynia region was governed at that time by a governor named Frontonus, who
gave orders to arrest the sisters and bring them before him. At first he tried
to persuade them to renounce Christ, promising great honours and rewards. But
the holy sisters steadfastly confessed their faith before him, rejecting all
the suggestions of the governor, and declaring to him, that they did not value
temporal earthly blessings, and that they were prepared to die for their
Heavenly Bridegroom. Going into a rage, the governor took out his wrath on the
eldest of them – Saint Menodora. The saint bravely endured the torments and
finally, she cried out: "Lord Jesus Christ, joy of my heart, my hope, in
peace receive Thou my soul!" And with these words she gave up her spirit
to God. 
Four days
later they brought to the court the younger sisters Metrodora and Nymphodora.
They put before them the battered body of their elder sister to frighten them.
The virgins wept over her, but they likewise remained steadfast. Then they
subjected Saint Metrodora to torture. She died, crying out with her last breath
to her beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Then they turned to the third sister
Nymphodora. Before her lay the bruised bodies of her elder sisters. Frontonus
hoped that this spectacle would intimidate the young virgin. Under pretense
that he was charmed by her youth and beauty, he began amiably to urge her to
worship the pagan gods, promising great rewards and honours. Saint Nymphodora
rebuffed his words, and shared the fate of her older sisters. She was tortured
to death with blows from iron rods.
The bodies of the holy martyrs were to be burnt on a bon-fire, but a strong rain extinguished the blazing fire, and lightning felled Frontonus and his servant. Christians took up the bodies of the holy sisters and reverently buried them at the so-called Warm Springs at Pythias (Bithynia). Part of the relics of the holy martyrs are preserved at Athos in the Pokrov-Protection cathedral of the Russian Panteleimon monastery, and the hand of Saint Metrodora is situated on the Holy Mountain in the monastery of the Pantocrator.
Source: http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/September/10-01.htm
