PATRON SAINT OF THE DAY: For Unmarried Women

December 25th, best known as Christmas, is also the feast of Saint Eugenia.

Eugenia was said to have been the daughter of Philip, "duke" of Alexandria and governor of Egypt. She had fled her father's house dressed in men's clothing and was baptized by Helenus, bishop of Heliopolis.

She later became an abbot, still pretending to be a man. As the story goes, while she was an abbot and still dressing like a man, she cured a woman of an illness, and when the woman made sexual advances, which she rebuffed, the woman accused her publicly of adultery. She was taken to court, where, still disguised, she faced her father as the judge. At the trial, her real female identity was revealed and she was exonerated.

Her father converted to the faith and became Bishop of Alexandria but the emperor had him executed for this. Eugenia and her remaining household moved to Rome where she converted many, especially maidens, but this did not prevent their martyrdom. Christ appeared to her in a dream and told her that she would die on the Feast of Nativity. She was beheaded on December 25, 258.

Saint Eugenia, ora pro nobis!