Ukrainians Celebrate the Feast of Faith, Hope, Love, and their Mother Sophia

On the last day of the first month of autumn, the 30th of September, the Christians who follow the Julian Calendar celebrate the feast of Faith, Hope, Love, and their Mother Sophia. In Ukraine, this day is a double holy day: since 2009, the Day of Adoption has been marked at the state level.

According to statistics, 1,400 babies are born in Ukraine daily and 50 of them become orphans. Sixty babies are adopted daily. As of today, our citizens have adopted 35,000 young Ukrainians, over 62,000 are brought up by guardians in their families, about 8,000 live in foster families and orphanages run by families.

The number of adoptions of children with disabilities, severe sicknesses, such as AIDS, has also increased.

The situation, however, regarding adopting older children is more difficult, whereas there is no problem with the adoption of children under 5 and there are even queues to adopt them. For instance, the number of orphan children of 11 is much bigger than the number of persons willing to adopt them: 1,670 of 31,186 children who need adoption are children under 3, the rest of them are over 3.

The day of adoption in Ukraine is under the protection of the Holy Faith, Hope, Love, and their Mother Sophia. On September 30 according to the Julian Calendar Christians honor the memory of these saints.

According to historical records, the widow Sophia with her daughters, who were named after the three main Christian virtues, lived in Rome in the second century, under Emperor Hadrian (117-138).  When the emperor learned about it, he wished to meet them. All the four of them came to him and boldly professed the Christian faith.

The emperor was impressed with their firmness of faith and sent the daughters to a pagan woman who was to persuade them to renounce Christianity and offer sacrifices to pagan gods. When this did not work, the emperor personally demanded that the sisters renounce the faith and offer sacrifices to pagan gods. But the girls refused to follow the order of the emperor in indignation.

After that, he ordered the children to be tortured. The woe-stricken mother personally buried the tortured daughters. After three days of relentless prayer at the children's grave, St. Sophia died there.

It was in the year 137. The oldest daughter Faith was 12, Hope was 10, and Love was 9.

The church beatified the sisters and the mother. Since the year 777, the relics of the holy martyrs have been kept in a church in Alsace.