Description
St. Matrona was a Christian slave in the house of her Jewish mistress Pautila, the wife of one of the military commanders of Thessalonica in the 3rd or 4th century. St. Matrona refused to go to the synagogue and was caught by her mistress for going to the local Christian church. Pautila mercilessly beat her and then locked her in a closet overnight, tightly bound by ropes. When the closet was opened in the morning, her ropes were on the floor, and St. Matrona, freed by God, was praying on her knees. This greatly enraged her mistress, who beat her more savagely and tied her more tightly, then locked her in the closet again for four days.
When the sealed door was again opened, St. Matrona was found alive and freed again, but instead of causing the Jewish woman to pause at this obvious miracle, she beat St. Matrona nearly to death this time until strips of her flesh were hanging from her body, and locked her up again, where St. Matrona went to her Lord. When the closet was opened and Pautila found St. Matrona dead, she had her body tossed from the roof to the pavement below. Soon afterward, Pautila died from her sins, falling from the same roof.