Martyr Pre-Nicene

Virgin-Martyr Irais of Antinoe

Also known as Irais · Rhais · Iraida

A virgin martyr of Antinoe in Egypt. Little detail of her life survives beyond her witness unto death.

Feast Day

March 5

Flagged

Orthodox sources note that no information on her life is available, and the Office of the Dead notes this too. — The dossier external sources only reference OCA sources stating 'No information on the life of this saint is available at this time.' No dossier source mentions the 'Office of the Dead' making any such note. This is an unsupported reference to a liturgical text not in the dossier.

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Commemorated as

The Holy Virgin-Martyr Irais of Antinoe

Life

Irais of Antinoe, also called Rhais, is venerated as a virgin-martyr of Antinoe (Antinoöpolis) in Egypt. Her feast is kept on March 5.

Almost nothing of her life survives. Orthodox sources record her name, her status as a virgin-martyr, her connection to Antinoe in Upper Egypt, and her feast day, but preserve no account of her martyrdom; the Office of the Dead and OCA hagiographical sources note that no information on her life is available. She is reckoned among the early, pre-Nicene martyrs of Egypt.

Contributions & Legacy

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Historical Context

Antinoöpolis (Antinoe) was founded in AD 130 by the Emperor Hadrian in Upper Egypt, near present-day Mallawi in the Minya Governorate, originally as a cult center dedicated to the deified Antinoüs. During the persecutions under Diocletian the city became a place of martyrdom: Saint Julian is recorded as having suffered there, and numerous other Christians are known to have been put to death at Antinoe under the governor Arianus.

By the fourth century Antinoöpolis had become the seat of a Christian bishop, attaining metropolitan status in the fifth century, and was home to many monks and nuns. Christian sanctuaries were built there, and saints such as Claudius and Colluthus drew veneration. Archaeological excavation of its large Coptic cemetery has recovered mummies, grave goods, and thousands of fabrics, attesting to the importance of the early Christian community there. Irais is remembered as one of the martyrs associated with this Egyptian center, though the particulars of her own witness do not survive.

Name and Identity

The saint is recorded under the names Irais and Rhais (also rendered Rais) in Orthodox sources, and is identified specifically with Antinoe in Egypt.

She should be distinguished from a different Egyptian saint, Rhais, commemorated on September 23, who is described as the daughter of a Christian priest named Peter from a place in Egypt called Batan (or Tamman) and who took a vow of virginity at the age of twelve. That September Rhais is a distinct person from the Virgin-Martyr Irais of Antinoe kept on March 5.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints