Emiliana of Rome

Who they were

Emiliana was one of three sisters of the Roman senator Gordian, father of St. Gregory the Great. St. Gregory tells how his aunts Trasilla, Emiliana and Gordiana vowed themselves to God and lived a life of virginity, fasting and prayer in their own home on the Clivus Scauri in Rome, though Gordiana later turned back to the world.

Trasilla died on Christmas Eve, and a few days later, Gregory relates, she appeared to Emiliana, who had followed her faithfully, and invited her to keep the feast of the Epiphany in heaven. The Roman Martyrology commemorates Emiliana on 5 January.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

An aunt of St. Gregory the Great who lived a consecrated life of prayer in her Roman home.