講道與書信 第 207 章 第 4/4 段

We only add that another not dissimilar deed occurred to us while reading the founded work of Baronius, in which, under the fourth of May, it is recounted that Antonina, a virgin of Constantinople, assumed the manly dress of a certain Alexander, so that she might be secretly led out of the brothel. Wherefore the same cardinal noted: Since Christian women were frequently condemned to the brothel, similar cases could rather often have occurred. Palladius too, in the Lausiac History, describes from Hippolytus that this very thing happened to another virgin in the city of the Corinthians. And finally, to pass over in silence what Valerius relates about the women of the Lacedaemonians, not obscure are the things which Surius, Simeon Metaphrastes, and other writers have handed down about Saint

Euphrosyne, the virgin of Alexandria, have handed down. She, out of zeal to cultivate perpetual virginity, having left her father's house and put on manly dress, entered the cloisters of the monks; and there she concealed her sex and condition until her death. Perhaps those who are accustomed to devote their effort to the stricter rules of criticism will not so easily fasten upon this last narrative, since in it there occur causes which seem to be repugnant to common decency, and cannot so easily be joined with the benefit of one's neighbours.

But all the perils and evils that threaten, and that a woman with shorn head, having put on the monastic habit, might encounter, straightway vanish, if that almighty God who is the author of every good counsel shall deign, just as in the woman Judith, to direct, guard, and bring to completion such endeavours of piety and religion.