SS. AURELIA AND NEOMISIA 03 French. When she fonnd that she had come to a country where there were many houses of religious retirement and hundreds of holy virgins serving God in them, she was filled with thankfulness. She went to Paris, where many holy men, secular as well as ecclesiastic, shed lustre on the court hy their wisdom and virtue. Among these were St. Amoul or Amulf, mayor of the palace ; St. Budo, treasurer of France ; St. Owen, a great and valiant commander under Dagohert ; St Eloi (Eligius), a goldsmith of Limousin, who was called, for his charity, The Father of the Poor.*' To him the king had given a fine large house in Paris, which he transformed into a Benedictine nunnery, and huilt in it a church dedi- cated in the names of SS. Martial and Valeria, patrons of his native province. As the virtues and piety of St. Aurea could no more be hidden than the light' of the sun, St. Eloi soon found her out, and made her abbess of his new convent, though she would have chosen to obey rather than to command. Here she ruled over three hundred nuns. One day, in the chapel of the nunnery, a cer- tain deacon r^d the Qospel so badly that the good abbess lost all patience, seized the book out of his hand, and read it herself. Afterwards she acknowledged with deep regret the irreverence of her conduct, and imposed upon herself, as a penance, to recite the whole of the hundred and fifty psalms daily, seated in a chair with nails in it specially con- structed for discomfort. This penance she accomplished with great devotion, having resigned, for the time, her office of abbess. A nun named Deda, who had the whole charge of the revenue and ex- penditure of the community, died while Aurea was absent at a farm which formed part of the possessions of the convent. No one else understood the business, and great trouble and loss were threatened to the nuns. Three days after Deda's death Aurea came home and raised her to life. Deda gave a satisfactory account of her stewardship, and set the affairs of the house in order. Some time afterwards she departed in peace. During the pes- tilence that ravaged France in 66(5, more than half of the nuns died. St. Eloi, Bishop of Noyon, Tournay, and Ver- mandois, who had died the year before, appeared robed in white, to a young man, and bade him go and tell the abbess Aurea to come to him. She then died, aged sixty-eight, having been abbess thirty-three years. B,M. L^gende Bor^e, AA,8S. Butler. Life of St. Eloi, Dec. 1, on the authority of St. Owen. St. Aurea (8), July 19, V.M. 856. Sister of Adolphus and John, the first martyrs in the persecution at Cordova, under Abderrahman. Several years after their glorious death, Aurea, like St. Peter, denied her Lord in the moment of danger, but repented, and pablicly pro* fessed her regret. She was slain with a sword and hung on a gibbet with her head down. B,M, AA.SS., from St. Eulogius's contemporary account of this persecution. Cahier, CaracUriatiques. St. Aureca, Jan. 2, M. St. Aurelia (l), Dec. 2, V. Towards the end of the 6th century, St. Colum- banus, St. Gall, and some other Irish Scots went on a mission to revive Chris- tianity in parts of the continent where the people had relapsed into paganism. Amongst the ruins of a little city called Brigantium, now Bregentz, about 610, they found an oratory dedicated to St. Aurelia, near which they built themselves cells. St. Gall preached to the people and destroyed their idols, and St. Colum- banus, to the satisfaction of the people who returned to the true Faith, placed the relics of St. Aurelia under the altar on which he said Mass. BM, This Aurelia is probably the same as Valeria (12). St Aurelia (2), Oct. 12 or 13, M. with St. Lupus, under the Saracens, at Cordova. The town of Soria, or San- toria, is named after this saint, or St. Aurea (2), or St. Auria. AA.SS. SS. Aurelia (3) and Neomisia, Sept. 25, VV. at Anagni, in Italy. Suy- sken says probably in the beginning of the 11th century. Mas Latrie says per- haps in the 9tii century. They were bom in Asia. On the death of their parents, contrary to the wishes of their relations, they made a vow of virginity, and gave their inheritance to the poor; They visited the holy places of Syria^
