These virgins lived during the days of the Roman Emperor Theoclesian (284-305 AD). They were sisters in body from the city of Thessalonica, daughters of parents from the upper class.

We do not know when Saint Irene lived or when she was martyred. Some place her in the first century and some in the fourth century (the Synaxarium places her in the fourth century).

Saint Irene (Salam), whose biography we will now recount, is not the great Saint Irene among the martyrs, who was born in the century