Persecution and Trial
According to the synaxarion, Tiris, the governor of Thrace, systematically persecuted Christians throughout his jurisdiction and summoned the three before him, demanding that they renounce their faith. When they refused to apostatize, the governor ordered them beaten.
Theodotus, described as a pious man, publicly condemned the governor's cruelty and was consequently hung from a tree and tortured with iron hooks. All three were then imprisoned and transported by the governor over a period of about two weeks.
Torture and Martyrdom
At Adrianopolis the three endured severe tortures, including being scorched with white-hot plates, and by tradition received heavenly encouragement during their suffering. They were then thrown to wild beasts in the circus; the accounts relate that a she-bear refused to attack Maximus and Theodotus and instead showed them affection, while Asclepiodota, tied to a bull, remained unharmed.
Finally, at the village of Saltis near Philippopolis, the governor Tiris had all three beheaded after they once more refused to renounce Christ. The synaxarion relates that divine justice followed, as a bolt of lightning struck Tiris while he sat upon the judgment seat.
Names and Commemoration
The female martyr's name is rendered as Asclepiodota in Greek sources and as Asclepiodotus in Latin and Slavic sources. The group is commemorated chiefly on September 15, and a cross-reference on September 17 lists the same three martyrs as 'of Marcianopolis in Thrace,' indicating a secondary commemorative date in some traditions.
Their city of origin, Marcianopolis (modern Devnya, Bulgaria), was a major city of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior, distinct from Adrianopolis (modern Edirne, Turkey), where they were tortured. An icon in the Menologion of Basil II, a tenth-century Byzantine illuminated manuscript, depicts the three martyrs together, attesting to their veneration in the Byzantine tradition.
