By the command of Emperor Trajan, Christian martyrs were persecuted, and their bodies were thrown into unclean places. The daughter of the emperor, Drosida, learned how Christian virgins gathered the bodies of the martyrs and buried them with honors. She decided to join them, but was captured by the guards and brought before her father. Trajan, seeing her, ordered her to be kept in a closed room, hoping that she would repent. The virgins were executed, and their bodies were burned in the bronze from which sacrificial tripods for pagan gods were made.
When the people came to the bathhouse to see its opening, many died at the threshold. Trajan, frightened, summoned the priests, who explained that this happened because of the tripods made from the bronze in which the Christian virgins were burned. After this, Andrian suggested making statues of naked maidens to dishonor the martyrs. Trajan agreed, and the statues were erected.
In a dream, Trajan saw a shepherd who told him that the martyrs were in paradise and predicted that Drosida would also come there. In anger, Trajan ordered two furnaces to be heated and threatened the Christians to bring sacrifices to the pagan gods. Drosida, learning that the Christians were being thrown into the furnaces, prayed to the Lord and decided to flee to avoid marrying Andrian.
She removed her royal insignia, anointed herself with oil, and baptized herself in a stream, uttering the words of baptism. Hiding for seven days, she was found by Christians who learned her story. On the eighth day, after praying, the holy martyr fulfilled her intention and departed to the Lord.
