St. Euphrosyne

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Died about 470. Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian virgins, in order the more successfully to lead the life of celibacy and asceticism to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men. According to the narrative of her life in the "Vitæ Patrum", Euphrosyne was the only daughter of Paphnutius, a rich man of Alexandria, who desired to marry her to a wealthy youth. But having consecrated her life to God and apparently seeing no other means of keeping this vow, she clothed herself as a man and under the name of Smaragdus gained admittance into a monastery of men near Alexandria, where she lived for thirty-eight years after. She soon attracted the attention of the abbot by the rapid strides which she made toward a perfect ascetic life, and when Paphnutius appealed to him for comfort in his sorrow, the abbot committed the latter to the care of the alleged young man Smaragdus. The father received from his own daughter, whom he failed to recognize, helpful advice and comforting exhortation. Not until she was dying did she reveal herself to him as his lost daughter Euphrosyne. After her death Paphnutius also entered the monastery. Her feast is celebrated in the Greek Church on 25 September, in the Roman Church on 16 January (by the Carmelites on 11 February).

MOMBRITIUS, Sanctuarium, I, 253-255; Acta SS., Feb., II, 535-541; BOUCHERIE in Revue des langues romanes (1870), II, 26-40; Analecta Bollandiana, II, 195-205. For earlier monographs see POTTHAST, Bibliotheca historica medii ævi, II, 1298-1299; BARING-GOULD, Lives of the Saints (London, 1898), II, 264; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 11 Feb.

J.P. KIRSCH