Euphrosyne, Saint

EUFROSINA, saint. - Daughter of Pafnuzio, an eminent personage of Alexandria, born about 413. Since her father wished to force her into marriage, at the age of eighteen she left her paternal home and, dis-
guised as a man, entered a monastery near Alexandria, which housed about 350 religious. The abbot advised her to shut herself alone in a small cell, where she lived holily for thirty years under the name of Smaragdo. Her father often went to visit her, without recognizing her, in order to receive spiritual counsel and admonitions. Before dying she revealed herself to her father and died in his arms, in the year 470. She is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 1 Jan.; the Greeks celebrate her feast on 25 Sept. This account, preserved in the Vitae Patrum, forms part of a group of legends on a similar theme.