Saint Pulcheria

Saint Pulcheria was an empress in Constantinople, the daughter of the Emperor Arcadius and the sister of Theodosius II, in whose name she governed while he was still young. She lived in vowed virginity, and in the disputes over the teaching about Christ she stood on the side of the Church’s faith. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her on September 10 as the one who defended and promoted the true faith.

She was born on January 19, 399. After the death of Arcadius in 408 her younger brother, then still a child, became emperor. On July 4, 414, Pulcheria received the title of Augusta and took charge of her brother and of the affairs of state. Sozomen, a historian of the Church and her contemporary, writes that she conducted all business in her brother’s name, brought him up with care and taught him piety, and that she herself spoke and wrote Greek and Latin fluently.

According to Sozomen, Pulcheria while still a young girl dedicated her virginity to God and led her sisters, Arcadia and Marina, to do the same. As a sign of her vow she gave the church in Constantinople an altar of gold and precious stones bearing an inscription that testified to it. The sisters prayed together, sang the praises of God, occupied themselves with weaving, and generously helped the poor and strangers, so that the palace resembled a monastery. Pulcheria built houses of prayer, hostels for travelers, and monasteries, and she also found the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

When Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, began to teach a doctrine that divided God and man in Christ and denied Mary the title of Mother of God, Pulcheria opposed him. The Council of Ephesus condemned this teaching in 431. Pope Leo the Great later wrote to her that thanks to her vigilance the error of Nestorius had not prevailed. For a time, because of court intrigues, she lived away from the court.

In 449 a synod at Ephesus, which Leo called a gathering not of judges but of robbers, supported Eutyches, who taught that there is only one nature in Christ. The pope then asked Pulcheria for help by letter. After the death of Theodosius in 450 she took Marcian as her husband and co-ruler, on condition that he respect her vow of virginity. Pius XII wrote in an encyclical of 1951 that both were renowned for wisdom and true faith. The body of the patriarch Flavian was brought back to Constantinople with honor, the exiled bishops returned to their sees, and the pope accepted the council convoked at the empress’s command and sent his legates to it. In 451 at Chalcedon the bishops, in the presence of the imperial couple, acclaimed her as orthodox and a lover of Christ.

Pulcheria died in 453; according to ancient sources she left all her property to the poor. Her veneration goes back to antiquity, before canonization processes existed. The Churches of the East and the West venerate her as a saint, and in the Byzantine calendar her memorial also falls on September 10.