IRENE OF MAGEDON SCOURGED (another homage to Amy Hesketh)
Irene of Magedon was the only daughter of the pagan prefect of her hometown. Her original name was Penelope. Because of her beauty, her father kept her locked in a tower. Her teachers, however, informed her about Christianity, and St. Timotheus, the pupil of St. Paulus, baptized her and her maidens, whereupon she changed her name.
Her father was furious and tied her to his horse in order to drag her behind him as a punishment, but the horse struck him down. He came back to life by the prayers of Irene, and became a Christian himself.
Irene traveled to other towns to spread the Christian faith, and was frequently prosecuted. In one town, the prefect let her be thrown into a pit of snakes (an angel neutralized the poison), tied to a water mill in order to make her drown slowly (the river stopped its flow), and sawn into pieces (the saw broke). Finally he stripped her, shod her feet with with irons, put a bridle on her and made her pull his carriage though the town. She obeyed, but then an earthquake overturned the carriage and killed him.
Then irene was tied to a pole and savagely scourged until she fainted. After surviving many other tortures and humiliations she was killed with a sword.