Venerable Euphrosyne of Alexandria

Venerable Euphrosyne was born in the early 5th century in Alexandria to noble and wealthy parents, their only child. Unwilling to enter the marriage arranged by her father, and fearing recognition in a women's monastery, she fled home dressed as a man, calling herself Smaragdus, a eunuch of the imperial court. The abbot of a men's monastery received her and placed her under the guidance of the monk Agapitus, but, wary of the "young man's" beauty, housed her separately. In the monastery, remaining unrecognized, she labored for 38 years in fasting, prayer, and complete obedience. Euphrosyne's father, grieving over his daughter's disappearance, often came to that same monastery for comfort and spiritual counsel from "Smaragdus," not suspecting he was speaking with his own child. Only before her death did the venerable one reveal her secret to him. After her repose, the father himself took monastic vows under the name Paphnutius and labored in his daughter's cell for ten years until his own death.