Martyrology of Salisbury Offange, Ophenge), V. M. The year of her death given by different authors varies between 280 and 311.
One of the four great patronesses of the Eastern Church; patron of Calatafimi, of the Faculty of Theology in Paris, of Parenzo in Istria, of Verona. Represented: (1) with a sword sticking in her breast, a lily in her right hand, and a palm in her left; (2) between two serpents; (3) with a wheel near her; (4) with a lion or bear standing by her; (5) burnt alive, angels coming to her.
Daughter of a senator of Chalcedon. She wore black clothes to show that she renounced all worldly pleasures. Seeing so many Christians perish for their faith in the time of Diocletian, she complained to Prisons, the judge, that he treated her with unjust neglect in granting the honours of martyrdom to so many persons, and passing her over. The judge tried to persuade her to renounce her religion, and failing, had her beaten with fists, and then had her shut up in his own house, where he intended to make love to her, but he could not open the door of her prison, either with keys or with axes. He then ordered her to be broken on a wheel, but the wheel broke and killed the executioners, leaving Euphemia free. She was miraculously delivered from several other forms of death and torment, prepared for her by the heathen, among others, when thrown to wild beasts, instead of devouring her, they twisted their tails together, and made a chair for her to sit on. Finally she was stabbed by one of the attendant soldiers. The man who stabbed her was honoured by Priscus with a magnificent robe and a gold necklace ; he went out, and was eaten by a lion; his friends looking for his body could only find some little bits of bones and small remains of his silken robe and golden collar. Priscus also was torn to pieces by the lion. The accounts vary as to the last act of cruelty that put an end to her life. Some say she was burnt alive, others that she was rescued miraculously from the flames, and afterwards thrown to wild beasts, and being weary of so many torments, she prayed that this might be the last, and accordingly a lion killed her with one bite. R.M. Golden Legend, Flos Sanctorum, and other collections of legends. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred Art. Stilting, in AA.SS. Butler, etc. Baillet says her worship was popular in very early times, but that the only ground for her story was a picture described by St Asterius (5th century), in a homily, representing her dressed in the dark brown robe of a philosopher, one executioner pulling her by the hair, and another striking her on the mouth with a hammer. Leo the Isaurian, in the 8th century, desiring to stop the worship of relics and images, had her body thrown into the sea, but her relics were found and her worship re-established by the Empress Irene (12) and the Emperor Constantino.
St Euphemia (3), patron of Antequera, and of Anria, or Orense, in Galicia, in Spain, where some of her relics are kept, is claimed as a Spaniard, but is probably the great Euphemia of Chalcedon.
St. Euphemia (4), April 13, M. at Chalcedon, in Bithynia, with SS. Eucapia and Secutor. AA.SS.
St. Euphemia (5), April 12. AA.SS.
St. Euphemia (6), July 1 1 . Crucified and burnt. Commemorated in the Abyssinian Church. AA.SS.
These four are possibly duplicates of the great Euphemia.
St. Euphemia (7), May 11, M. with parents, brothers, and sister. AA.SS.
St. Euphemia (8), March 20, M. with St. Alexandria (3). R.M.
St. Euphemia (9), July 3, M. at Constantinople, in the time of the Emperor Valens.
St. Euphemia (10), or Eulalia, March 30, V. M. AA.SS.
St. Euphemia (ll), June 2, M. at Home. AA.SS.
St. Euphemia (12) of Abyssinia. June 6, 4th century, had a special devotion to the Archangel Michael, whose image she wore on her forehead, and thus overcame the devil. Mentioned in the metrical Hagiography of the Abyssinian Church. AA.SS.
