PULCHERIA, saint. — She is commemorated by the Greek and Latin Martyrologies on 10 September.
Daughter of the emperor Arcadius, born on 19 January 399, she consecrated her virginity to God, inducing her two sisters to do likewise; and although living at court, she led an austere life in
neto he was appointed to the chair of Sacred Scripture. Forced by political events to take refuge in the monastery of Praglia, he remained there until 1810, then stayed with his brother Domenico. His fame is linked to his writings against devotions to the Way of the Cross and the Sacred Heart: Sei lettere ai compilatori del «Giornale letterario» di Venezia, in Raccolta di opuscoli interessanti la religione (vol. XII, Pistoia 1786); Riflessioni sopra l'origine, la natura, e il fine della devozione al S. Cuore di Gesù (Naples 1780); Lettera di un teologo ai signori estensori delle «Effemeridi letterarie di Roma» in difesa di una dissertazione sul ritorno degli Ebrei alla
prayers and good works. On 4 July 414, after her father’s death, she was acclaimed Augusta and regent of her young brother Theodosius II, who had assumed the Empire; she gave him in marriage Atenaide, whom she herself had converted to Christianity and who took the name Eudocia. She worked very actively to build churches, hospitals, hospices for pilgrims, monasteries, and above all for the proper conduct of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, earning flattering praise from St. Leo the Great and from all the ancient historians. In opposition to her imperial brother, who was ill-advised by his courtiers, she was for some time forced to live in seclusion; but when Theodosius died (450) without heirs, P. was recognized as empress. She immediately associated with herself the aged senator Marcian, whom she shortly thereafter married, on his promise to preserve her virginity. She then purged the court of Theodosius’s evil counsellors, beginning with Chrysaphius, the primary cause of all the misdeeds of the late Emperor. She died on 10 September 453, leaving all her private property to the poor; she was buried in the Church of the Apostles.