Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/160

148 ST. PHEBE Amelbeboa (1), who was sister or niece of Pepin of Landen, father of Charles Martel, and mother, by two marriages, of several saints whose number and names are yarioosly given. Pharalldis is generally said to have been the daughter of the second marriage, and sister of St. Yenant, and perhaps of St. Gengulf (or Gingo), martyrs, and half- sister of St. Adelbert, bishop of Cambrai, and of SS. Gudula, Beykeld, and Ebmelind. She was brought up by her aunt St. Gebtrude abbess of Nivelle; and under her influence, made a vow of celibacy, foreswore all splendour of dress and luxury of any sort, and gave all her money to the poor. She had many suitors, and her parents married her to the one whose rank was the highest. She told him she was the spouse of Christ and consecrated to Him by a vow of chastity. He did not appreciate her sanctity and she could not be recon- ciled to domestic life. He ill treated her. They quarrelled and parted. He suffered to his dying day, from a com- plaint which was regarded as a direct visitation of Divine vengeance, for his disrespect and unkindness to his holy wife. She led the life of a nun in her own house, always getting up at cock- crow, to attend matins at the nearest monastery. She died at the age of ninety; and not long alter, during an invasion of the Normans, the abbot and monks of the church where she was buried, took her body, with other precious relics, and fled io Ghent. It has been remarked that all the saints who are represented with geese have their festivals in winter, and it seems probable that the geese in the calendar marked the time when wild geese were expected to migrate, or that they were intended to typify snowstorms, and that the legends of miracles concerning geese were invented to account for the pictures. Of St. Pharalldis the same story is told as of St. Werebuboa, namely, that she restored to life and plumage a goose which had been stolen and eaten. Pos- sibly the goose that Pharaildis carries denotes the town of Ghent, of which she was patron, and the name of which means goose. St. Bbioid (2), St. MiLBUBOA and St. Hilda also ordered off mischievous geese. The miracle of the loaves seems to have been performed after her death. A poor woman had no bread for her child and begged her sister to give her some. She answered that she had none in the house. The poor sister continued to beg ; whereupon the cruel one exclaimed, " May St. Pharaildis change the loaves into stones if I have any here ! " Then all the loaves turned into stones, and two of them are still preserved at Ghent. A holy comb is kept as a relic of her. Her feast was for ages the chief holiday at Ghent and observed with great merry- making. The Belgians say that if the sun shine on Pharailde's day, it foretells pestilence. AAJSS. Cahier. Eckenstein. Swain- son, Folklore. St. Phebe or Phcebe, Sep. 3, called the Deaconess. A servant of the church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, and the bearer of St. Paul's epistle, from Corinth to the Eomans. He therein commends her to the kindness of the Christians at Borne, calling her ^ sister " and "a succourer of many,*' including himself. As deaconess she was one of an Order of women appointed to take care of those parts of the church re- served exclusively for women. They also ministered to the sick, poor, and ignor- ant, of their own sex : the widows spoken of in 1 Tim. v. 9, are supposed to have been of the same class. In the Eastern Church the ceremony for the ordination of a deaconess contains these words — " As Thou didst give the grace of Thy Diaconate to Phebe whom Thou calledst to the work of the ministry. . . ." B.M. Bomans xvi. 1, and note at end of epistle. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Littledale, Offices of the Eastern Church. AA.SS. Thomassin, Disserta- tions inedites. Analecta Juris Pontifidi, 12th series, Col. 808. Phebronia or Febbonia, June 25, in urhe Sihi. Menology of BasU. Pro- bably Febbonia (1). St. Pheime, a French form of EupHEMiA. Chastelain.