When Domnina entered the room, she greeted Photina warmly and in the course of her salutation mentioned Christ. Photina mistook her for a fellow believer, and after embracing her, she openly shared the transforming love and wonder of her Christ with the one she presumed to be a sister. Domnina was undone, and rather than refute Photina, she converted to Christianity. But she was not alone in her conversion – her serving girls were converted as well, as they listened to the bold preaching of the gospel by the sisters. Then Photina instructed Domnina and her servants to remove all the wealth from the room and distribute it freely among the poor they found in the streets of Rome. Domina was baptized and received a new name.
Nero was enraged. He ordered Photina, her sisters, and her sons to be put to death by fire. He had a large furnace constructed, but when they were thrown into the furnace, they wouldn’t catch on fire. Next, Nero ordered them executed by poisoning. When the poisoner came, Photina volunteered to be the first to drink, but the toxins had no effect on her or any of the Christians. Then the one Nero had sent to poison them converted to Christ. They remained imprisoned for their faith, and over the next three years they were beaten and subjected to every form of torture the twisted emperor could invent.
But the more he oppressed them, the more their fame grew. Word of their faith and power spread throughout the empire’s capital, and during their prison tenure, the jail itself became a house of worship. Roman citizens came regularly to the cells of believers to receive prayer and hear the gospel. For three years the message of Christ continued to infiltrate Rome from the confines of the prison, and many believed.
Nero sent for one of his former servants whom he had imprisoned, and the man reported all that was happening. Nero ordered the immediate beheading of all the Christians he held in the prison. The only exception was Photina. He hoped to break her resolve through grief and isolation, so he has her removed from the prison and lowered into a deep, dark, dry well. A few of the accounts say she was severely scourged first. He left her there for weeks in what must have felt like an open earthen grave. She was acutely alone. These were dark days for Photina and she wept, but not over the loss of her loved ones. She knew they had been released from every form of earthly prison and already granted a heavenly reception. She grieved that she had been denied the privilege of being martyred alongside her sons and sisters and therefore robbed of a martyr’s crown. From all I read it would appear that this time was the most difficult for her.
Every historical account I read mentioned this season in a well. In one account, she died there in the depths of the dry well, but not from despair but by choice. Like Stephen, she beheld her Savior in a dream and yielded her spirit. Other written records said she was removed from the well after an extended period of time, and after a dream in which Jesus appeared to her, she was released from life while in prison. Either way, this woman’s life was a deep well of living water that nourished and refreshed countless others.
BOTTOM LINE:
Photina did not produce admirers or fans; her life produced witnesses and martyrs. This woman had something I want. She had something we all may need in the days that are before us: unshakable resolve.
NEXT UP: Church attendance grows when the world looks favorably toward Christians. But committed disciples are birthed in seasons of hardships.