Saint Pulcheria, Empress of the East

Pulcheria also took care of the education of the two sisters who remained with her, and she had the consolation of seeing them constantly follow the path of virtue. It was only the desire for perfection that determined her to take a vow of virginity. Her sisters imitated her and shared in all her good works. The three of them ate together and performed their exercises of piety jointly. They employed what time they had left in serious and useful studies, or in work appropriate to their sex. Pulcheria only left them when the affairs of the State compelled her to, and she found the means to create a solitude in her heart everywhere. She practiced mortifications and austerities unknown in the courts of princes. The entrance to her apartment and that of her sisters was forbidden to persons of the opposite sex, so much did the pious princess fear even the shadow of danger. She only saw men and spoke to them in public. The imperial palace, under her guidance, offered the regularity of a cloister. Like Moses, she consulted God in all matters that arose, and only made decisions after having taken the advice of the wise and virtuous persons who composed her council. Her resolutions were always the result of the most mature deliberations; she gave orders accordingly, and had them executed with promptness, taking care to act only in the name of her brother, so that he would have the honor of all the enterprises which never failed to turn to the glory of the empire.

One admired in her an uncommon knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages; she knew history perfectly, and was well-versed in the different branches of literature. She declared herself the protector of the sciences and arts, as have always done those princes who had a great soul and who had a just idea of the excellence of the human spirit.

Far from using religion for politics, she brought all her views and projects to prayer; thus, nothing was lacking for the happiness of the State. She knew how to prevent all the revolts that various passions might have excited; she maintained peace with neighboring powers and worked to extend the knowledge of the true God in the parts of the State where He was not yet worshipped. Finally, virtue never shone in the East with a brighter luster, the people were never happier, and the Roman name was never more respected, even by the Barbarians, than when Pulcheria held the reins of government.

Theodosius, her brother, having reached his twentieth year, she thought of finding him a wife worthy of him, and cast her eyes upon Athenais. She was the daughter of an Athenian philosopher, and she had received an excellent education. Having come to the court to have her father's will, which had disinherited her, overturned, she was universally admired there for her beauty, her wit, and her fine qualities. Finally, this admiration went so far that she was judged worthy to become the wife of the emperor. As she had been raised in paganism, she first received baptism and left her name to take that of Eudocia. The ceremony of her marriage took place on June 7, 421. Two years later, Theodosius declared her Augusta. Until then, there had been no change in the administration of affairs; Pulcheria was still the principal driving force. But the power of this princess soon cast a shadow over Eudocia; the latter conceived violent movements of jealousy against her sister-in-law, and she was encouraged in this by the intrigues of the eunuch Chrysaphius, who was the emperor's favorite.

After the condemnation of Nestorius in the council that was held at Ephesus in 431, Eudocia and Chrysaphius pulled a thousand strings to ruin Pulcheria. The emperor, naturally weak and indolent, did not at first enter into their views, but he allowed himself to be won over in the end and ordered Saint Flavian, Patriar ch of Constant Constantinople City where the saint exercised his ministry and patriarchate. inople, to make Pulcheria a deaconess of his Church. The holy bishop brought forward the most solid reasons to excuse himself from obeying; they refused to listen to them. Seeing then the prince strongly attached to his first resolution, he withdrew and promised to return to the court at a set time; but he secretly warned Pulcheria of what her enemies were plotting against her. This princess retired to the countryside, with the intention of spending the rest of her days there in silence and obscurity. Her retreat, which occurred in 447, was a source of misfortune for the State and for the Church. Eudocia and Chrysaphius, to satisfy their resentment, became the persecutors of Saint Flavian; they declared themselves in favor of Eutyches, whose errors had been condemned; they took the side of Dioscorus and the other Eutychians, and protected them in all the acts of violence and fury that they committed in 449, at the Robber Council of Ephesus. At their instigation, Theodosius published an edict by which he approved everything that had been done by the heretics.

Pulcheria thanked God for the tranquility she enjoyed in her retreat, and occupied herself there only with the exercises of religion. She was not heard to complain, neither of the ingratitude of her brother, nor of the violence of the empress, who owed her elevation to her, nor of the injustice of the ministers. She wanted to forget the world and be forgotten by it, considering herself happy to be able to freely converse with God and meditate on his law. If anything troubled her, it was the thought of the dangers that threatened the Church and the State; she still felt touched with compassion for her brother, who, through an excess of credulity, lent himself to the views of the wicked.

However, the evil continued to grow, and it soon reached its peak. Pulcheria was deeply pained by this, and Pope Saint Leo urged her through his letters to work toward a prompt remedy. Finally, she resolved to leave her retirement and make one last effort to save the State and the Church. She went to the court and requested an audience with the emperor. Having obtained it, she spoke to him with such force that he opened his eyes immediately. As indignant as he was frightened at the sight of the precipice into which he had been cast, he disgraced Chrysaphius and relegated him to an island, where he was put to death in punishment for his crimes. Theodosius having died on July 29, 450, Eudoxia retired to Palestine, where she ended her days.

Pulcheria became, through the death of her brother, mistress of the Eastern Empire. To strengthen her authority, she believed she should sha re it w Marcien Advisor to Emperor Valerian. ith Marcian, born in Illyria. He was a man very well-versed in the art of war, and who joined to a profound knowledge of affairs, an ardent zeal for the Catholic faith, a rare virtue, and an extraordinary love for the poor. He was a widower and had had from his first marriage a daughter named Euphemia, who married Anthemius, who was later emperor of the West. Pulcheria, in offering him her hand, declared to him the vow she had made to live in virginity, and it was agreed between them that the marriage would not infringe upon it. These two great souls, concurring toward the same goal, occupied themselves only with the means to make their subjects happy and to make religion and piety flourish.

Saint Leo having sent four legates to Constantinople, the Emperor and the Empress received them with as much joy as affection. Their zeal for orthodoxy earned them great praise from the holy Pope and from the general council of Cha lcedon, which condemned Eutych concile général de Chalcédoine Ecumenical council confirmed by Hilary. ianism in 451. Th ey employed a eutychianisme Heresy condemned at the Council of Orléans. ll their authority to have the decrees of this council executed throughout the East; but they experienced great difficulties in Egypt and in Palestine, because of the obstinacy of the Eutychians who were in those regions. Pulcheria wrote two letters, one addressed to monks and the other to an abbess of Palestine, to dispel the false ideas that had been given to them about the Fathers of Chalcedon; in them, she proved that the council, far from reviving Nestorianism, condemned it along with the Eutychianism that was opposed to it.

This pious princess established a great number of useful institutions and founded several hospitals to which she assigned considerable funds. Among other churches that she built, three are distinguished which were dedicated under the invocation of the Mother of God: that of B Blaquerna Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary founded by Pulcheria. lachernae, that of Chalcoprateia, and that of Hodegon. She placed in the latter the famous image of the Blessed Virgin, which the Empress Eudocia had sent her from Jerusalem, and which was regarded as the work of Saint Luke. The affairs of the State did not prevent her from maintaining her fervor; all the moments she could steal from the functions of government, she employed in praying, reading, visiting, and serving the poor with her own hands. She was, according to Sozomen, favored with several extraordinary graces; and it was in consequence of a vision that she had a solemn translation made of the relics of the forty martyrs, which were en reliques des quarante martyrs Relics whose translation was commissioned by Pulcheria. closed in a magnificent reliquary. The same historian, who was an eyewitness to the ceremony, adds that the people attended with the greatest devotion, and that they hastened to touch linens and other similar objects to the holy relics.

Pulcheria, having been during her life the protector of the Church and the mother of the poor, gave by her will to both all the goods of which she could freely dispose. Finally, if one considers her actions and her virtues, one will agree that there is no exaggeration in the praises she received from Saint Proclus, Saint Leo, and the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon. She died on September 10, 453, in the sixty-ninth year of her age.

Marcian punctually executed the will of his august spouse. He continued the good works she had begun, and showed himself the faithful imitator of all her virtues. He was reunited with her in heaven on January 26, 457, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the seventh of his reign.

Saint Pulcheria is represented leaning on a tablet bearing the Greek word $\varphi \omega \nu \acute{\iota \omega \varsigma}$ (Theotokos), which recalls the condemnation of Nestorianism at the Council of Ephesus; 2nd in a group, with her three sisters Flaccilla, Arcadia, and Marina; 3rd holding a lily in her hand, as a symbol of the inviolable chastity she maintained until her death.

Taken from Sozomen, Book IX; from Theodoret, reading; from the Chronicle of Alexandria. — Cf. Tillemont; Cardinal Orsi; and Father Stilling, in the Acta Sanctorum, volume III of September.