EUFEMIA of CALCEDONIA, saint, martyr. — The acts that have come down to us are not authentic (BHG, 619 ff.; BHL, 2708–14). E. was a virgin consecrated to God; during the persecution of Diocletian, her teeth were broken with a hammer and she was then thrown into the fire. The Fasti Vindobonenses priores assign her martyrdom to 16 September of the year 303 (MGH, Auctores antiquissimi, IX, p. 290). Veneration of the martyr soon spread in both East and West, as is attested several times by the Greek Synaxaria, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, the calendars of Carthage and Naples, the Sacramentaries, etc. In the East she had a basilica in Antioch (Moschus, Pratum, 88: PG 87, 2945).
In Constantinople several churches were dedicated to s. E. (R. Janin, Les églises de ste Euphémie à Constantinople, in Echos d'Orient, 37 [1934], pp. 270–75). In Egypt she is commemorated in the calendar of Oxyrhyncos (B. P. Grenfell–A. S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, part 9, no. 1337, pp. 19–43). In Africa, in the church of Kherbet-el-Ma-el-Abiad, between Costantina and Setif, memoriae of s. E. were deposited in the year 474 (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, in Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, XII, 1 [1907], p. 112). At Aquileia, on 3 September, the dedication of the Basilica to L'ingresso reliquiorum of a group of saints, including s. E., was commemorated; on the same date, in Grado, the dedication of the basilica of S. E., built by Patriarch Elia, was commemorated. At Milan, perhaps as early as the time of s. Ambrogio, relics of s. E. were brought, and her commemoration was held on 27 November. At Rouen, Bishop Vitriccio placed relics of s. E. on public display (De laude Sanctorum; PL 20, 448). At Ravenna no fewer than five churches dedicated to s. E. are recorded. One was built in the city above an older church; a second at Classe, called ad mare, that is, the baptistery of the basilica of Probus, transformed by Bishop Massimiano into a church of s. E., but already demolished in the time of Agnello; a third, which Agnello calls « in Calinico »; a fourth outside the Porta Aurea; and a fifth outside the Porta S. Lorenzo. Also at Ravenna, in 550, Bishop Massimiano deposited relics of s. E. in the church of S. Stefano. At Rome her cult was localized in a basilica situated in the fourth urban district, that is, in the Suburra; Gregory of Tours (ca. 537–94) mentions it as a meeting point for widows during the procession of the great sevenfold litany. The building had no roof in the time of Sergio I (687–701), who restored it (Lib. pont., I, p. 375). It is not known when the basilica was erected, but it must certainly have been earlier than the one that Pope Gelasio had dedicated to s. E. at Tivoli between the years 492 and 496 (Lib. pont., I, p. 255). Near Albano, a basilica in honor of s. E. was erected by Pope Dono (676–678). In Calcedonia, in the basilica erected over her tomb, precious fabrics were admired on which, according to the testimony of Asterio of Amasea, episodes from her martyrdom were represented (BHG 2, 623; Evagrio, Hist. eccl., II, 3; J. Pargoire, L'église Ste Euphémie et Rufinianes, in Echos d'Orient, 14 [1911], pp. 107–11).
The martyr was represented at Ravenna in one of the mosaic medallions in the chapel of S. Pier Crisologo (CIL, XI, 261), and she closes the procession of the martyrs in S. Martino in « Caelo Aureo »; today S. Apollinare nuovo (CIL, XI, 281); at Parenzo, in one of the mosaic medallions inside the triumphal arch of the basilica of Bishop Eufrasio (O. Marucchi, Le recenti scoperte nel duomo di Parenzo, in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., 2 [1896], p. 16). She was also depicted in a fresco in an apsidal niche in the ancient basilica of S. Clemente; the upper part remains, showing her youthful appearance, with a rich pearl diadem on her head and the inscription SCÀ EUF [emia] (Wilpert, Moschus, tsv. 213, 4, p. 1035); there is also a figure of s. E. in a fresco in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura dating from the twelfth century.
Bull.: Marty, Hieronymianum, p. 187, 351, 370, 447, 511; J. Cravian, Une fête liturgique mystérieuse. La mémoire de ste Euphémie de Chalcédoine à la date du 13 avril, in Echos d'Orient, 15 [1936], pp. 168–82; E. Donekel, Aussermische Hei-