Venerable Martyr Eudokia of Heliopolis

Eudokia was a Samaritan woman of Heliopolis in Phoenicia (Baalbek in today's Lebanon) in the reign of Trajan. Her Life describes her as a celebrated courtesan who had grown as rich as a queen. One night a monk named Germanus, lodging in the house next to hers, read aloud from a book about the Last Judgment; she lay awake listening through the thin wall and in the morning sent for him.

She was baptized by the local bishop, gave her fortune to the poor, freed her slaves and entered a convent, where she was later chosen abbess. Her Life tells of many conversions and wonders. Fifty-six years after her baptism a new governor, Vincent, had her beheaded, c. 160–170.