[Page 79]

The Life of Shushanik
in the 1834 edition
of the Menologion

December 28 and Kaghots 20

On this day Shushanik, the maidservant of Christ, was martyred in Armenia for confessing Christ. She was the daughter of Saint Vardan, himself the grandson of Saint Sahak, patriarch of Greater Armenia. She had been given in marriage to Vazgen, the margrave of Georgia, who ruled in Mtskhita.

It happened that after the martyrdom of Saint Vardan and his companions, Vazgen, Shushan's husband, forsook Christ in order to please the king of Persia, and forced Saint Shushan to convert. For six years she was tortured in prison, fettered, hungry and naked, until her entire body was in pain and covered with wounds. But with great labor she suffered all of these things for the love of Christ.

One day Vazgen, greatly enraged at her [80] determination of mind, struck her with a club, but she somehow escaped half dead with the help of her brother-in-law, Jojik. She received Holy Communion and gave up her soul as a noble confessor to the faith. She was buried with honor in the land of Georgia.

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