4th century
Saint Xenia the Great Martyr
Martyr from Kalamata who, according to tradition, refused to marry the city's pagan governor and was beheaded in the early 4th century.
Biography
Xenia was born in Kalamata in 291 AD, the daughter of pious Christians who had fled there from Italy to escape persecution. From childhood she devoted herself to fasting, prayer, and helping the poor, widows and orphans.
The city's governor, Dometianus, chanced to see her, was struck by her beauty, and wanted to marry her, but she firmly refused to abandon her faith for a pagan ruler.
Dometianus had her cruelly tortured and finally beheaded on 3 May 318. In 1993 a church was built in her honour west of Kalamata.