Euphrosyne of Alexandria ( el, Ἁγία Εὐφροσύνη tr. "good cheer"'','' 410–470),
[Swan, p. 83][Kirsch, Johann Peter (1913). "St. Euphrosyne". In Charles G. Herberman; ''et al''. (eds.). ''Catholic Encyclopedia''. 5. New York: Encyclopedia Press, Inc. p. 11.] also called Euphrosynē,
was a
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
who disguised herself as a male to enter a
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
and live, for 38 years, as an
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
. Her
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
is celebrated on September 25 by the
Greek Orthodox Church
The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...
,
Episcopal Church, as well as
Byzantine Rite Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually.
The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...
s, and January 16 by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Euphrosyne was born to a wealthy family in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
; her father Paphnutius was a devout Christian and her mother died when Euphrosyne was twelve. When she was 18, her father wanted her to marry, so she escaped, disguised as a man, and entered the same monastery he often visited for spiritual counsel. She spent most of her years as a monk in seclusion because her beauty tempted the other monks. During the final year of her life, Euphrosyne became her father's spiritual director, comforting his grief over losing his only daughter. Eventually, she revealed her identity to him and they reconciled. After she died, he entered her monastery and became an ascetic himself, living in her cell until he died ten years later.
Life
Euphrosyne was born in 410,
[Swan, p. 83] into a "rich and illustrious"
family in Alexandria, the only daughter of Paphnutius, "a deeply believing and pious Christian".
According to
Johann Peter Kirsch in the ''
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
'', "Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian
virgins
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
, in order to more successfully to lead the life of
celibacy
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...
and
asceticism
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men".
[Kirsch, Johann Peter (1913). "St. Euphrosyne". In Charles G. Herberman; ''et al''. (eds.). ''Catholic Encyclopedia''. 5. New York: Encyclopedia Press, Inc. p. 11.] Paphnutius and his wife were having difficulty having children, so he went to a local
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, which he visited often, and requested that the
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
, who was his spiritual advisor, and
monks
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedicat ...
pray for them; Euphrosyne was born shortly afterwards.
She was baptized at the age of seven, educated in the scriptures, and was well known for her wisdom and love of learning.
When Euphrosyne was twelve, her mother died and her father raised her alone. When she was 18, she had many suitors, so her father chose the most noble and wealthiest for her to marry. They visited the monastery together to receive a blessing from the abbot for her marriage, which he did, but the visit inspired Euphrosyne to enter the
monastic life.
[Clark, p. 196] As writer David Clark put it, she was "unwilling to allow her gender to be a barrier to adopting this lifestyle for herself".
A year later, the abbot sent a monk to Paphnutius' home to invite him to the anniversary celebration of the abbot's ordination; she met with the monk, and admitted to him her wish to become an
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
, despite her fears of disobeying her father.
The monk advised her to disguise herself as a man "to escape her impending marriage".
[Clark, p. 197] She sent a servant to bring another monk to her, a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
from
Scete, who gave her the same advice. At her request, the monk shaved her head and invested her as a monk.
When her father left home for another spiritual retreat, Euphrosyne took advantage of his absence and decided to join a monastery, the same one her father visited, instead of a convent, because she was afraid that her father would find her. She disguised herself as a man, claiming to be a
eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...
; the abbot did not recognize her, and welcomed her into the monastery. Euphrosyne took the name Smaragdus, and lived there as a monk for 38 years, until her death in about 470.
Euphrosyne, as Smaragdus, impressed the abbot with "the rapid strides which she made toward a perfect ascetic life",
but as writer Laura Swan put it, "Dissension arose in the community over Euphrosyne's beauty, and the same abbot ordered her into seclusion".
Smaragdus moved deeper into the desert to a solitary cell, reciting his prayers alone, without the rest of the community, and as Swan also said, grew to love "the intense solitude",
[Swan, p. 84] eventually only seeing his spiritual director and the abbot.
Clark, in his chapter about Euphrosyne in his book ''Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature'', compares her story with the story of
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
in the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
, which also includes themes of disguise and secret identities.
[Clark, p. 201] Clark, who considered Smaragdus' fellow monks' discomfort with him another "interesting gender dynamic"
[Clark, p. 195] and discusses "the complex and contradictory gender dynamic"
in Euphrosyne's story, also compares Euphrosyne with
Eugenia of Rome
Eugenia of Rome (died c AD 258) was an early Christian Roman martyr whose feast day is celebrated on December 25 in the Roman Catholic Church, on December 24 (January 6, New Style) in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on January 23 in the Armenian ...
, a 3rd-century saint who also disguised herself as a man, because they share a "similar dynamic".
Clark also says that Eugenia and Euphrosyne's stories, which both include the aid of servants and the use of disguise to escape into a life of religious seclusion, "are typical of tales of lovers thwarting unwanted marriages. However, here the lover is Christ, and the aim is not conjugal bliss but the celibate life".
Death and legacy
Euphrosyne's father Paphnutius went to the monastery "for solace for his grief"
over the loss of his only daughter; the abbot sent Euphrosyne to provide him with spiritual direction and comfort, but Paphnutius did not recognize her because she covered her face with a veil and never revealed her identity.
He received "helpful advice and comforting exhortation"
from her anyway and returned to meet with her several times, becoming, as Clark put it, "the spiritual father to her own biological father",
Eventually, in the last year before her death, she revealed to Paphnutius her secret; they reconciled, and she requested that he tell no one and that he prepare her body for burial. After she died, Paphnutius distributed all his wealth to the poor and to the monastery, and became a monk himself, living in his daughter's cell for ten years, until he died and was buried beside Euphrosyne.
Clark stated that Paphutius' actions was another instance of the theme of gender reversal in Euphrosyne's story, and a reworking and complication of the issues of physical and spiritual fatherhood
revealed in the "reversal of the father-daughter relationship".
Euphrosyne's tomb "became a place of prayer with miracles attributed to her".
Her
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
is celebrated on September 25 by the
Greek Orthodox Church
The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...
and January 16 by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
According to Swan, an early version of Euphrosyne's life was written in
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...
and another one was written in
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
form.
According to Clark, an account of her life, written in Old English, also exists.
In 2022, Euphrosyne was officially added to the
Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 25 September.
Further reading
*
Notes
References
Works cited
* Clark, David (2009). ''Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. .
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
243546011.
*Swan, Laura (2001). ''The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women''. New York: Paulist Press. .
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
45460900.
{{Authority control
Year of birth unknown
5th-century deaths
5th-century Christian saints
5th-century women
Ancient African women
Byzantine female saints
Late Ancient Christian female saints
Roman-era Alexandrians
Saints from Roman Egypt
Byzantine saints
5th-century Egyptian people
5th-century Egyptian women
Cross-dressing saints
Anglican saints