The city of Nicomedia, located on the territory of present-day Turkey, was the capital of one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. During early Christianity, this city was home to many converts to the new religion, persecuted for their beliefs. Those of them who accepted death at the hands of the pagans became holy martyrs. One of them is Domna Nikomediskaya, which in Russia was called Domnaya Kind, her memory is honored on September 3 (according to the old style - September 16).
Domna Nicomedia lived during the reign of Emperor Maximian Herculius at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th centuries. He was famous for his persecution of Christians, and Domna was a pagan priestess and lived in the imperial palace. In one of the departures of her master, the young priestess fell into the hands of the Christian texts - "Acts of the Apostles" and "Epistles of the Apostle Paul", the study of which opened the girl's eyes to the true faith.
The priestess came to Saint Cyril, who at that time was bishop in Nicodia, taking Indis to accompany the eunuch. In conversations with Cyril, Domna strengthened her faith and, together with the eunuch-slave, received Holy Baptism. Filled with Christian mercy, the girl, accompanied by her faithful slave, began to help the poor, giving them her jewelry and bringing food taken from the palace.
The head of the eunuchs, having learned about this, imprisoned Domna and Indes, but it was not possible to starve them to death - thanks to prayers, the prisoners survived. Then Domna pretended to be insane and was released from prison, she left Nicodia and hid in the monastery. After waiting out the danger, the former priestess changed into a man's dress, cut her hair and left her refuge, which was soon devastated by the warriors of Maximian, sent by the emperor in search of Domna.
For some time she wandered until on the seashore fishermen met her, stretching out the bodies of Indis and two more Christian martyrs Peter and Gorgonius, who were killed and thrown into the sea for refusing to participate in the pagan holiday. The girl buried the bodies and visited the grave every day, indulging in grief. The emperor, hearing about a strange young man caring for the grave of Christians, ordered to seize him and chop off his head. It happened in 302.
In the folk calendar in Russia, Domna Kind, according to custom, was commemorated on September 3. On this day, it was customary to collect worn-out clothes and junk in the house and hang them on the nearest poles. People believed that this would protect them from damage and the evil eye - it was assumed that an unkind person, seeing a large number of rags and worn-out bast shoes, would be surprised and begin to count them, after which he would no longer be able to jinx the owners of things. In the evening, all the rags hung up were removed and burned. The houses were thoroughly cleaned that day, everything that was still wearable was washed and darned. Clean rugs were laid out in the rooms.
