ON ST. AEMILIANA, VIRGIN, AUNT OF ST. GREGORY THE GREAT.
In the Sixth Century.
CommentaryAemiliana, Virgin, aunt of St. Gregory, Rome (St.)
From St. Gregory.
[1] The Roman Martyrology records the feast of St. Aemiliana on January 5 in these words: "At Rome, St. Aemiliana the virgin, aunt of St. Gregory the Pope, who, upon the summons of her sister Tharsilla who had gone before her to God, The name of St. Aemiliana in the Martyrologies. departed to the Lord on this very day." Galesinius also mentions her, as do the German Martyrology, the manuscript Florarium, the Carthusians of Cologne in the Additions to Usuard, Hugo Menardus, Arnoldus Wion, and Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, who testifies that her body and that of her sister Tharsilla are buried in the church of St. Gregory. St. Tharsilla is venerated on the 24th of December.
[2] Of both of them St. Gregory writes the following in Homily 38 on the Gospel, for the 20th Sunday after Trinity: "What we have heard is truly to be feared, most dear brothers. Behold, we have all come, already called through faith, to the nuptials of the heavenly King; we both believe and confess the mystery of his Incarnation; we receive the banquets of the divine word. But on the future day of judgment the King will enter. Few are chosen, though many are called. We know that we are called; whether we are chosen, we do not know. It is therefore all the more necessary that each one of us humble himself in humility, since he does not know whether he is chosen. For some do not even begin good things; others, however, do not at all persist in the good things they have begun. One man is seen to lead his entire life in wickedness, but near the end of his life he is recalled from his wickedness through the lamentations of strict penance. Another seems to lead a chosen life, and yet it happens that near the end of his life he declines to the wickedness of error. Another begins well and completes better; another exercises himself in evil deeds from his earliest age and in the same works, always worse than himself, is consumed. Let each one therefore fear for himself with all the more solicitude, since he does not know what remains; because, as must often be said and never forgotten, many are called, but few are chosen Matthew 20:16. But since sometimes the examples of the faithful convert the minds of hearers more than the words of teachers, I wish to tell you something from nearby, which your hearts may hear with all the more dread as it sounds to them from close at hand. For we do not speak of things done long ago, but we recall those of which there are witnesses who report that they were present. My father had three sisters, all three of whom were sacred virgins; one was called Tharsilla, another Gordiana, The three aunts of St. Gregory. and the third Aemiliana. All were converted with one fervor, consecrated at one and the same time, and living under the strictness of a rule, they led a common life in their own house. When they had been for a long while in this manner of life, Tharsilla and Aemiliana began to grow daily in love for their Creator, and though they were here only in body, they passed daily in spirit to eternal things. But on the contrary, the spirit of Gordiana began to grow lukewarm from the warmth of inward love through daily diminishments, Gordiana grows lukewarm. and gradually to return to the love of this world. Tharsilla was accustomed to say often to her sister Aemiliana with great groaning: 'I see that our sister Gordiana is not of our portion; for I perceive that she is slipping away outward, and does not guard the heart for what she has resolved.' She is admonished by her sisters. They took care to correct her daily with gentle reproof and to reform her from the levity of her ways to the gravity of her habit. She would indeed suddenly assume a countenance of gravity amid the words of correction; but when the hour of correction had passed, the assumed gravity of respectability also passed at once, and she soon returned to frivolous words. She delighted in the company of lay girls, and any person who was not given to this world was very burdensome to her."
[4] "But on a certain night, to this Tharsilla, Tharsilla is summoned to heaven by Pope St. Felix. who among her sisters had grown in the honor and height of sanctity through the virtue of continual prayer, zealous affliction, singular abstinence, and the gravity of a venerable life, there appeared in a vision, as she herself related, my great-great-grandfather Felix, Bishop of this Roman Church, and he showed her a mansion of perpetual brightness, saying: 'Come, for I receive you into this mansion of light.' She was soon afterward seized by a fever and came to her last day. And just as at the death of noble women and men many gather to console their kin, at the very hour of her departure many men and women stood around her bed; among whom my mother also was present. When suddenly she looked up again, she saw Jesus coming, She sees Jesus as she dies. She breathes forth a sweet odor. and with great earnestness she began to cry out to those standing around, saying: 'Withdraw, withdraw, Jesus is coming!' And while she gazed at him whom she saw, that holy soul was released from the flesh; and so great a fragrance of a wonderful odor was immediately poured forth that the very sweetness itself showed to all that the Author of sweetness had come there. When her body was stripped for washing, as is the custom for the dead, the skin on her elbows and knees was found to have grown hardened, like the hide of camels, from the long practice of prayer; Her piety. and her dead flesh testified to what her living spirit had always done."
[5] She appears to Aemiliana. "These things occurred before the day of the Lord's Nativity. When this had passed, she soon appeared to her sister Aemiliana in a nocturnal vision, saying: 'Come, for since I spent the Lord's Nativity without you, I will now keep the holy Theophany with you.' She immediately replied, anxious about the salvation of their sister Gordiana: 'And if I come alone, to whom do I leave our sister Gordiana?' To which, as she reported, the sad-faced sister again said: 'Come, for our sister Gordiana has been counted among the laity.' This vision was soon followed by a bodily illness; Aemiliana dies. and so, as had been said, before the day of the Lord's Epiphany, with the illness growing worse, she died."
[6] "But Gordiana, as soon as she found herself left alone, Gordiana marries. her wickedness increased, and what had previously been hidden in the desire of her thought she afterward carried out in the effect of wicked action. For, forgetful of the fear of the Lord, forgetful of modesty and reverence, forgetful of her consecration, she afterward married the steward of her own estates. Behold, all three were first converted with one fervor, but they did not persist in one and the same pursuit; because, according to the Lord's voice, 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' I have said these things, therefore, so that no one already established in a good work may attribute to himself the strength of his good work, and no one may trust in his own actions; because even if he knows today what he is, he does not yet know what he will be tomorrow. Let no one therefore rejoice securely in his works, since he does not know, in the uncertainty of this life, what end will follow."
[7] So writes St. Gregory, who again mentions St. Tharsilla in book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 16. Baronius shows that the St. Felix who was St. Gregory's great-great-grandfather was the Third of that name, who is venerated on February 25, not the Fourth, who is venerated on January 30.