EVA, blessed. — Recluse of S. Martino di Liegi, born ca. 1205 at Liegi, died there ca. 1265. A confidante of s. Giuliana di Cornillon, she shared her zeal for the institution of the feast of Corpus Domini.
Through her pious insistence, this solemnity was introduced before 1251 into the Collegiate Church of S. Martino, beside which her reclusory stood, and throughout her life she worked for its extension to the whole Church. After the death of s. Giuliana (1258), she composed in the Romance language her memoirs, which form the basis of the ancient Vita Julianae, in which the episodes concerning E.’s relations with the Saint of Cornillon are marked by great candour and simplicity. The former archdeacon of Liegi, who became Pope Urbano IV, after instituting the feast of Corpus Domini with the bull Transiturus of 1264, sent E. a letter in the same year (reproduced in G. Barbero, Le confraternite del S.mo Sacramento prima del 1539, Vedelago [Treviso] 1944, p. 234), to communicate the great news to her; he also sent her a copy of the office de corpore Christi, composed in the Roman Curia and different from that attributed to s. Tommaso d’Aquino.
(courtesy of Prof. L. Grassi)
EVA — E., antitype of Maria SS.ma, panel by Paolo di Giovanni Fel (1372-1410) — New York, Mrs. Goodhart collection.