Venerable Martyr
Venerable Martyr Eugenia of Rome
† 262
Venerable-Martyr Eugenia of Rome — daughter of the prefect of Alexandria who secretly entered a men's monastery in disguise and became its abbot, cleared of a false accusation by revealing her sex, and beheaded in Rome on Christmas Day, 262.
Venerable-martyr Eugenia was born into a noble Roman family; her father Philip was appointed prefect of Egypt under Emperor Commodus, and the family relocated to Alexandria, where she received an excellent education.
After encountering the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, she secretly resolved to become a Christian and, disguised in men's clothing, fled with two eunuch servants, Protus and Hyacinth, to a men's monastery, where — her true sex undiscovered — she was in time elected abbot of the community.
A noblewoman named Melanthia, spurned by Eugenia, falsely accused the "monk" of assaulting her honor; brought to trial before her own father Philip, who did not recognize her, Eugenia was forced to reveal that she was a woman, upon which her whole family converted, and Philip himself later became bishop of Alexandria and was martyred.
Under the joint and later sole rule of Valerian and Gallienus, amid renewed persecution, Eugenia survived attempts to drown, burn, and starve her, before finally being beheaded in Rome on Christmas Day, 262 AD.
Her feast is kept on December 24/January 6.