Synaxarion of Saint Eupraxia of Tabennisi (+ 410)

St. Eupraxia of Tabennisi (Feast Day - July 25)

Verses

Eupraxia approached Christ wealthy,
Having tended to many good works of the soul.

Saint Eupraxia was the daughter of her father Antigonus the senator, and her mother was Eupraxia, who flourished during the reign of Theodosius the Great (379-395), with whom she was related. When her father died, her mother gave her over to Emperor Theodosius, begging him to take care of her orphan daughter. Theodosius had Eupraxia engaged to a leading senator. After this the Saint withdrew together with her mother and they went to Thebes in Egypt. There she entered a female monastery, where one hundred and four nuns lived in asceticism, who conducted their lives as equal to the angels. There Eupraxia entered, imitating their virtues, and from that time she did not leave the monastery; she was twelve years old at the time.

The mother of the Saint withdrew from Egypt, and journeyed to all her properties held in the East, and she did many good and merciful things for the poor. After this she became ill, and returned to the monastery in Egypt, where she left all of her belongings to her daughter Eupraxia, and she reposed in the Lord. Eupraxia distributed all of her patrimony to those who had need, and to the Church of God, for she exceedingly loved the ascetic and much-laboring life of the monastics. The blessed one attained such a degree of virtue, that she cast aside all the needs of her body, and became higher than them. For the manly-minded one stood in place without moving for forty-five entire days and nights, having her hands lifted to the heavens. Therefore due to her exceeding virtues, she received from God the grace to work miracles. She released many people from various sufferings and sicknesses. Having therefore lived a life of love for God, she departed to the Lord.