The Holy Martyr Fotina (Svetlana) was the Samaritan woman who conversed with the Savior at a well near the city of Sychar (John 4:5-42). The Lord reveals Himself to her, directly calling Himself the Messiah, foreseeing her future holiness. This revelation seems to be an extraordinary thing, since Christ rarely spoke directly about Himself, always preaching in parables. The Samaritan woman, sensing the Divinity of Christ under the cover of human nature, starts talking about God-worship and is again granted revelation: the Lord says that God should be worshipped in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).

According to the patristic interpretation, Christ speaks here about prayer, which must be performed with the mind and heart. This trust of Christ in a simple woman, and the discussion with her on spiritual topics requiring theological training, show how refined and sensitive Saint Fotina's soul was to the perception of Grace. In the time of Emperor Nero, St. Fotina lived in Carthage with her youngest son, Josiah. Her eldest son Victor was a warrior. Fotina raised her children in the Christian faith. When she appeared with her sons and five sisters before Nero's court in Rome, the impious emperor demanded that she renounce Christ. The Savior appeared to the holy martyrs and strengthened them before the judgment seat, saying: "Blessed is he who will accomplish his feat to the end." torture.

Some of them were terribly tortured, blinded, and thrown into prison, where they were miraculously healed and received visitors, preaching the word of God. St. Fotina was sent to the imperial palace under the supervision of Nero's daughter Domnina, whom she soon converted to Christ along with her slaves. All the martyrs were subjected to new tortures and executed. St. Fotina was thrown into a well, where she surrendered her spirit to the Lord in 66 A.D. Orthodox Christians turn to St. Fotina for various ailments and fever.