her to the abbess, who, taking up an image of Christ,
gave it into her hands. The tender virgin kissed it, saying: "By vow I
consecrate myself to Christ." Then the mother led her before an image of
our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven, said: "Lord Jesus
Christ, receive this child under your special protection. You alone doth
she love and seek: to you doth she recommend herself."[2] Then turning
to her dear daughter, she said: "May God, who laid the foundations of
the mountains, strengthen you always in his holy fear." And leaving her
in the hands of {586} the abbess, she went out of the monastery weeping.
Some time after this she fell sick, and being forewarned of her death,
gave her last instructions to her daughter, in these words: "Fear God,
honor your sisters, and serve them with humility. Never think of what
you have been, nor say to yourself that you are of royal extraction. Be
humble and poor on earth, that you may be rich in heaven." The good
mother soon after slept in peace. Upon the news of her death, the
emperor Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to court, having promised
her in marriage to a favorite young senator. But the virgin wrote him,
with her own hand, the following answer: "Invincible emperor, having
consecrated myself to Christ in perpetual chastity, I cannot be false to
my engagement, and marry a mortal man, who will shortly be the food of
worms. For the sake of my parents, be pleased to distribute their
estates among the poor, the orphans, and the church. Set all my slaves
at liberty, and discharge my vassals and servants, giving them whatever
is their due. Order my father's stewards to acquit my farmers of all
they owe since his death, that I may serve God without let or
hinderance, and may stand before him without the solicitude of temporal
affairs. Pray for me, you and your empress, that I may be made worthy to
serve Christ." The messengers returned with this letter to the emperor,
who shed many tears in reading it. The senators who heard it burst also
into tears, and said to his majesty: "She is the worthy daughter of
Antigonus and Euphrasia, of your royal blood, and the holy offspring of
a virtuous stock." The emperor punctually executed all she desired, a
little before his death, in 395.

St. Euphrasia was to her pious sisters a perfect pattern of humility,
meekness, and charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation,
she immediately discovered it to the abbess, to dr