EUPHROSYNE, Saint. - Daughter of Paphnutius, a distinguished personage of Alexandria, born around 413. Since her father wanted to force her into marriage, at the age of eighteen she left her paternal home, and disguised as a man she 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 saintly for thirty years, under the name of Smaragdus. Her father often went to visit her, without recognizing her, to receive counsel and spiritual admonitions. Before dying she revealed herself to her father and died in his arms, in the year 470. In the Roman Martyrology she is commemorated on January 1; the Greeks celebrate her feast on September 25. This account preserved in the Vitae Patrum is part of a group of legends on a similar theme.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Martyr. Romanum., p. 3; anonymous, Vita s. E., sec. textum primigenium, in Analecta Bollandiana, 2 (1853), pp. 195-203; J. P. Kirsch, Euphrosyne, in Cath. Enc., V, p. 606.

Giuliano Gennaro

@incollection{ec5_eufrosina_santa, author = {Gennaro, Giuliano}, title = {Eufrosina, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {791--792}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/eufrosina-santa} }

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Euphrosyne, Saint

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