The Miracle of Edessa (Эдесское чудо) is a historical Christian novel by Yulia Voznesenskaya, based on an episode from the Life of St. Gourias, Samonas and Abibas.
Edessa is in danger of a Hephthalite invasion, and the Byzantine army, including a hired Gothic battalion, gathers to defend the city. Seventeen-year-old Euphemia is smitten with a dashing Gothic commander Alaric, who soon asks her mother for Euphemia's hand in marriage.
However, Alaric has omitted a tiny detail: back in his native city, he has a wife and children waiting for him.
The novel contains examples of:
- Affair? Blame the Bastard: Downplayed, since thanks to Deliberate Values Dissonance Fiona can't really do anything about her husband's behavior, hence her lashing out at available targets: at Euphemia and particularly at little Photius, culminating in Fiona fatally poisoning the latter.
- Affectionate Nickname: Alaric calls Euphemia Finch. After hearing her sing for the first time, he compared her to a nightingale, but she, thinking that he was referring to her embroidery, said that it was a finch, and the name stuck.
- Ambiguous Ending: Euphemia's future fate is deliberately left up in the air, with the author speculating she might have married again, lived on as a widow, or taken the veil.
- Arranged Marriage: Alaric's marriage to Fiona was arranged by their families when he was fifteen and she twenty.
- Betty and Veronica: Euphemia has nothing but platonic fondness for her childhood friend Tobias, refusing even to think of marrying him since he is plain-looking, on the chubby side and generally unimpressive. She falls madly in love with handsome, passionate foreign commander Alaric instead, and boy, does she come to regret it. The last chapters hint she might see Tobias in a new light after learning how he ceaselessly tried to search for her, but it's purposefully left unclear whether a romance will develop.
- Bittersweet Ending: Euphemia is rescued, gets back home and is reunited with her mother and nurse, while Alaric finally gets the comeuppance for his actions. However, Euphemia is heavily traumatized by her ordeal and especially by the death of her baby, and Alaric and Fiona's little daughters are now orphaned and will live with the knowledge that their father was a lying, murderous, cheating scumbag who was executed in disgrace.
- Buried Alive: The mob condemns Euphemia to be buried with Fiona's body.
- Corrupt Church: The bishop of Laodicea, when Euphemia tries to seek help from him, is bribed by Alaric with a sizeable donation to the church and never investigates the matter further.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Close to the end, Bishop Eulogius asks Euphemia, when her legal status is discussed, whether she would have consented to marry Alaric again now that he's a widower. Granted, he expects her to answer no and is relieved when she does, but in modern times, such a question wouldn't have ever been posed.
- The Determinator: Photinia realizes she is the only one in Edessa who knows about Alaric's deception, so she manages to escape after he attempts to drown her and raises an alarm about Euphemia's predicament, all that despite getting along in years.
- Deus ex Machina: A literal case. After Euphemia analyzes the mistakes she herself had made in the whole catastrophe (such as preferring to continue her affair when opportunities for her to escape appeared several times), begs the deceased Fiona for forgiveness, and puts her own fate entirely in God's hands, St. Gourias, Samonas and Abibas appear and transport her back to Edessa.
- Entitled to Have You: The first definite red flag in Alaric's behavior is when he resorts to threats after Sophia is reluctant to allow his marriage to Euphemia.
- Face Death with Dignity: At Alaric's judgment, when Euphemia asks the judges for clemency, Alaric thanks her but says he needs to face the consequences of his actions.
- Hired Help as Family: Euphemia's nurse Photinia is considered part of the family and loves Euphemia like her own child.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The citizens of Edessa are prepared to pardon Alaric after Euphemia pleads for Christian forgiveness... and then his superior officer announces that such crimes can't go unpunished by the army and cuts off Alaric's head.
- Karmic Death: Fiona is killed by the same poison she used on baby Photius.
- Mad Love: Even after Alaric's deception is revealed and she is forced to be a slave in his household, Euphemia still retains feelings for him. This, however, gets thrown out of the window for good after he lets her get buried alive and makes doubly sure she can't escape.
- Made a Slave: Euphemia, a freeborn citizen in Edessa, is made a slave of Alaric's wife.
- Meaningful Name: Fiona means "white", and Alaric's wife is a pale-skinned blonde.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Euphemia's little son Photius is murdered by Fiona, and it absolutely breaks the poor girl.
- Sympathetic Murderer:
- Euphemia puts the piece of flax into Fiona's wine while she thinks the flax might be poisoned – but only because she rightly suspects that if it was poisoned, then it was Fiona who murdered her own baby.
- Eventually, Euphemia feels that Fiona was also an example. Killing a baby is certainly a monstrous thing to do, but Euphemia realizes that Fiona was driven to madness by her husband's mistreatment, lies and infidelities.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Fiona kills Euphemia's baby in a fit of jealous rage.
- Alaric is even worse, callously treating the baby as a commodity, threatening to sell him to another master, and telling Fiona to do what she wants to the child since the latter is just a slave.
