The Myrrh-bearing Women – models for Christian women dedicated to serving their fellow men and testifying to the Risen Christ


Christ is Risen!

The Orthodox Church honors the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women on the third Sunday after Holy Easter. These are great teachers of the Church through their calling to be and to do, to express faith and courage, humility and appreciation for the Savior crucified and risen from the dead. Through their love for Christ, the myrrh-bearing women become teachers of the Church, apostles to the Apostles.

Along with the Mother of God and the other holy women, inscribed in the Church calendar, the myrrh-bearing women represent models for Christian women, who fulfill their vocation to be heralds of the Light of Christ. They represent the women who, early in the morning, at the break of dawn, go to the icon of the Savior and ask Him for help in rolling back so many “heavy stones of life” from their hearts or souls. They represent women who ask for Christ's help to be bearers of the values ​​of faith, to be faithful wives and mothers in the family, and pious women in the Church. Thus, the precious spices that faithful women bring to Christ are the wealth of spirituality or the connection of man with God, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a pledge of the eternal blessings of the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.

The myrrh-bearing women also represent those women who, through tears of repentance and much prayer, through asceticism and early morning services in the church, became nuns who gave birth to the virtues of the Christian faith.

Therefore, the Myrrh-bearing Women are the icon of all the faithful women in the Church, women who, through their faith, courage, and sacrifice, became martyrs, pious nuns in monasteries, and diligent Christian mothers in the family, proclaiming that the crucified and resurrected Christ, often unexpectedly, meets us and becomes the life of our lives, giving the pledge of eternal life.

On this day, the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates the Sunday of Christian Women and the Council of Holy Romanian Women, who, through their virtuous life, through their courage, became followers of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women, testifying, through prayer, word, and deed, to the resurrected Christ. We remind you that on Friday, February 6, 2026, the general proclamation of the canonization of the 16 Romanian Holy Women with a holy life took place, an event held in the context of the Year of Homage to the Pastoral Care of the Christian Family and the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women in the Calendar (myrrhbearers, martyrs, nuns, wives, and mothers).

Taking into account the model of spiritual life offered to us by the Romanian holy women, who shone through deep humility, unwavering faith, sacrificial love, patience in temptations and fearless confession of Christ in times of persecution, martyrs, confessors, nuns, wives, mothers, ladies and gentlemen or simple women from the people, known or unknown, are commemorated, as well as the holy women whose relics are located on the territory of Romania.

On the occasion of Myrrh-bearing Sunday, the feasts dedicated to Christian Women and the Council of Holy Romanian Women, we extend our congratulations, thanks, and blessings to all women who make the most of the gifts and talents specific to the Christian vocation, within the family, in monastic life, in the educational, cultural, and philanthropic service of the ecclesial community and society.

We wish them all health and salvation, peace and holy joy, for many and blessed years!


† DANIEL,

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

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