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This is a beautiful icon of these saints. One Greek variation of the story is that after first failing to cause Chyrsanthus to fall by sending some (ahem) women of ill repute to tempt him, they decided to use Daria, a beautiful and highborn pagan girl,to try to tempt Chrysanthus to renounce Christ. This version of the story is that during their time alone, he converted her to Christianity, and that they together came up with the plan to marry. Since Daria was still a secret Christian, this would give the pagans the idea that they had succeeded, and would "buy them some time."

They used that time to witness to the faith and converted many before they could finally not hide their faith any more, but rather began teaching and preaching openly, leading to their martyrdom.

Also today was the commemoration of the miracle of the "koliva," wrought through the intercessions of St. Theodore the Tyro during the time of Julian the Apostate in 362 AD. The Emperor had the food in the market sprinkled with the blood of animals sacrificed to pagan gods in order to defile the first week of the Great Fast. The saint appeared in a dream to Patriarch Aphdoxios of Constantinople warning him of the emperor's scheme. The Patriarch was concerned, because he did not believe that many people would have enough food to sustain themselves.

St. Theodore told the people to cook plain wheat, the supplies of which Julian had not thought necessary to contaminate. Thus, they did not buy anything in the market and avoided the tainted food. When Julian discovered that his plan had failed, he allowed the markets to go back to normal business after a week. Thus, at the end of the week, St. Theodore was greatly glorified, and to this day, we commemorate him and this miracle on the Saturday at the end of the first week of Great Lent.

This is also a day of commemoration for the departed, and from this making of koliva for the day commemorating St. Theodore's miracle, the practice spread to make koliva on the days of other memorial services and Saturday memorial liturgies for the departed.

If you ever go to an Orthodox memorial service for the departed (not at a funeral, though, usually), you will often be offered a small cup or dish of koliva -- it is very tasty!

And tomorrow, we have the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Around this time of year, there are always lots of saints commemorated who were involved in fighting the iconoclastic heresy. This is the biggest commemoration of this event -- we will process around our churches (either outside or inside, depending on weather and local tradition) holding icons. This is in commemoration of the glorious return of the holy icons to the churches of the cities of the empire, brought from their places of hiding.