ST. EMILY 260 away to the poor her own and her hus- band's clothes, and all the money she could get by selling things in the house. After his death she took the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and liyed the life of a nun in her father's house. She was favoured with many wonderful visions and miracles. It appears that her husband had not been very religious. When her stepmother and other friends tried to persuade her to marry again, she said, *' Enow that I have a very worthy Husband, for whose death I shall never weep, and whose eternal damna- tion will not doom me to perpetual widowhood, so trouble me no more about the matter, but rather, like a good Chris- tian, give something of your own to the holy recluses, for to-day I have gone round the city begging on their behalf" Her Life was written by a contempo- rary Franciscan monk. Her picture, by Gimabue, hung in the private chapel of her family in. the time of Papebroch. He gives a print of it in his introduction to her Life in the Bollandist collection. AA.SS., May 21. A,B.M.y for the Congregation of Yallombrosa, June 2. St. Emily (1), with her husband, May 30 (Emmelia, Emmeline), + c. 370. W^e of one St. Basil, and mother of another and greater. Mother also of St. Gregory of Nyassa, St. Peter of Sebaste, and St. Magrina the Youngeb. Basil and Emily are represented walk- ing ofif to the desert, where they took re^ge during the persecution of Gralerius, accompanied by a bear carrying bread on his back. St. Basil, the husband of Emily, was the son of St. Magrina the Elder. He was a very learned and distinguished lawyer of Cappadocia, and, like his wife, of noble birth and great possessions there. They had ten children, the eldest of whom was St. Basil the Great, bom at CeBsarea, in Cappadocia, in 328, one of the great doctors of the Eastern Church ; the youngest was St. Peter of Sebaste, bom about the time of his father*s death. Basil, Emily, and Macrina took groat paiuB in bringing up the children. In the education of hor daughters, Emily made a point of first laying a foundation of religious instmction, teaching them the Psalms and other sacred writings, and afterwards the poetry and heathen learning which were the fashion of the time. On her husband's death, she divided her property into nine portions for her nine children, one having died young. Four of her daughters married according to their station and inclination. St. Macrina, the eldest, remained with her mother. The man to whom her father had betrothed her died, so she considered herself a widow. All Emily's children were useful and virtuous members of society, but j^iaorina was her greatest comfort and constant companion, helping her to bring up the younger children, and, by her holy example and wise advice, assisting her mother to attain to a higher degree of sanctity. Emily was broken-hearted at the death of her favourite son Naucratius, a most promising young man, possessed of every gift of body, mind, and character that the fondest mother could desire for her darling. Although much loved and admired in the world, he withdrew from society and devoted himself to the care of sick and infirm persons. He was killed while hunting, about 357. Ma- crina shared and soothed her mother's grief. They established a nunnery on an estate of their own, and afterwards, with the help of the great St. Basil, added a monastery, and thither Macrina attracted her younger brothers, and in later years Peter became superior. Emily made her son and daughter the director and abbess of the house. She died in their arms after a long and happy life, about 370, in the middle of winter, and was buried beside her hus- band in the church of the Forty Martyrs, about a mile from her monastery. Emily wrought a miracle on behalf of her beloved daughter Macrina, who had a tumour in the breast, causing her so much suffering that it seemed necessary to have an operation by a surgeon. To this the holy virgin objected, from motives of delicacy ; so she prayed all night, and in the morning asked her mother to make the sign of the cross
