ST. PEBRONIA 309 St. Faustina (lO), June 10,M. with SS. Faustinas and Fausta (1). St. Faustina (ll), or Fausta (3), Nov. 23. "At Alexander the feest of saynt Faustyne queue and empresse, a martyr couerted hy sayt Eatheryne, & put to deth by her owne housbond ye omperour Maxiens." (Martyrology of Saliihury.^ Daras says she was probably the daughter of Galerius. (Les Chretiens d la cour de Diocletien,^ Another account calls her an Arab, but, in fact, it is not very likely that there was an empress converted by St. Catherine and put to death by her husband; and the sudden conversion and martyrdom of hundreds of spectators only lessens the probability that the incident should have escaped the notice of all contemporary writers and all secular historians. St. Faustina (12), Feb. 15, V. M. Commemorated in an old breviary of Utrecht. Possibly one of the 11,000 virgins, in whose relics the churches of the Low Countries were rich. AA.SS. (See Ursula.) St. Faustina (13), sister of St. LiBERATA, of ComO. St. Feammor, or Femmair, honoured in Ireland, Jan. 18, with St. Scoth (2). St. Febaria, Ermina. Irish. St. Febronia (l), or Phebronia, June 25, V. M. c. 304, at Sibapolis, or Noziba, in Armenia, or Mesopotamia. Patron of Trani, in Calabria. (Cahier.) There was at Sibapolis a convent of about fifty nuns, over whom the deaconess Bryene, or Brionia, presided. Bryene had two young girls under her care, whom she educated to the best of her power in the ascetic rule in which she herself had been instructed. One of them was called Procla, and was at this time five and twenty years old; the other was her niece, Febronia, who was eighteen. When Bryene saw how beautiful Febronia was growing, she was filled with anxiety, and ordered that she should only eat every second day. The girl was dis- tressed at her own beauty, and although she only lived on bread and water, she never took as much as she wanted, lest her body should continue to improve at the expense of her soul. She had a small wooden bench made (three cubits long and six palms broad) on which she slept a certain length of time, and some- times she rested on the bare earth. She read the Holy Scriptures diligently, and knew them very well, so that Bryene used to choose her to read to the sisters in the oratory on Fridays. A number of ladies used to come to hear the read ing; and Bryene, determined that Febro- nia should not see any secular person, hung a curtain across the oratory so that the reader might not be seen. It came to be known, however, throughout the town, that Febronia was so beautiful and so amiable, and read the Bible so well, and a young widow, named Hieria, though not a Christian, was seized with a great desire to see her. She came to the gate and entreated Bryene to allow- her to receive instruction from Febronia, adding that her parents wished her to contract a second marriage, but that she was inclined to become a Christian in- stead, and consecrate the rest of her life to religion. Bryene explained to her that Febronia had never seen any secular person nor any dress but that of nuns, that even her nurse, when she was a baby, had never been allowed to see her face, although she often begged for that privi- lege with tears; but she said that as Hieria hungered and thirsted after the knowledge of Ood, and as her salvation might be gained by it, she would let her come and talk to Febronia, provided she put on the dress of a nun. When Febronia saw her, she supposed her to be a pilgrim nun, and fell at her feet; and when they had kissed each other, Bryene told them both to sit down, and Febronia to read the Scrip- tures. Hieria was so much interested that they spent the whole night together, Febronia never tiring of reading nor Hieria of learning. In the morning Bryene had some difficulty in persuading Hieria to go away and return to her parents. At last she did so, and repeated so well what she Lad heard from Febronia, that she persuaded them to renounce their idol worship and become Christians. Soon alter this, Febronia was very ill.
