The pious Augusta of Byzantine - Pulcheria

Aelia Pulcheria [ΑΙΛΊΑ ΠΟΥΛΧΕΡΙΑ] sister of Theodosius II and wife of Marcian
AEL PVLCHERIA AVG [Aelia Pulcheria Augusta]​

Empress Pulcheria, daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. She was regent for her younger brother Theodosius II [Eastern Roman Emperor 408–450] from 414 to 416, and an influential figure in his reign for many years thereafter. Pulcheria comes from Latin pulcher [beautiful], meaning beautiful woman.

When their father died in AD 408 and the young Theodosius II became the new emperor of the embattled eastern half of the Roman Empire, Pulcheria assumed the role of her brother's protector. When the Senate voted her the title of Augusta [Empress] in AD 414, she used this newfound legitimacy to take over the regency for Theodosius II, which had been managed previously by the praetorian prefects.

Pulcheria aimed at being the real power in the Empire and declared her intention to remain a virgin and never marry as a means of avoiding male control [possibly to avoid a political marriage]. In contrast, her brother was easily dominated, and Pulcheria taught him to be an emperor in keeping with her own image of the office. Under her guidance, Theodosius II successfully warred against the Sasanian Persians in AD 421 and intervened in the Western Roman Empire, placing their nephew, Valentinian III, on the throne in AD 425. Pulcheria even engineered the disgrace and exile of Theodosius' wife, Aelia Eudocia, to remove her competing influence over the emperor.

Theodosius died unexpectedly after being mortally injured during a hunting accident in AD 450. Upon his death, Pulcheria was tasked with appointing his successor. She chose a man of Roman stock, though not of nobility, named Marcian. She married the new emperor on the condition that he not make her violate her vow of virginity, to which Marcian [Markianus] agreed. This unconventional marriage was made possible by church officials, who sponsored the agreement and decreed that God approved of the union and arrangement. The year following her marriage, Pulcheria was instrumental in summoning the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, which established the basic principles of teaching the Eastern Orthodox Church. Pulcheria died in AD 453, having kept her vows of virginity and defense of her Imperial dynasty for a half-century and left all of her possessions to the poor.

Pulcheria is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Sainte Pulcherie French school, founded in Istanbul [ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥΠΟΛΗ] in 1846, takes its name from Pulcheria.



Christian Church historian Salminius Hermias Sozomenos [ΣΏΖΟΜΕΝΟΣ] in his Ecclesiastical History describes the pious ways of Pulcheria and her sisters who took a vow of chastity: It is said that God frequently in many other cases revealed to the princess what was about to happen, and that the most occurred to her and her sisters as witnesses of the Divine love. 4 They all pursue the same mode of life; they are sedulous about the priests and the houses of prayer, and are munificent to needy strangers and the poor. These sisters generally take their meals and walks together, and pass their days and their nights in company, singing the praises of God. As is the custom with exemplary women, they employ themselves in weaving and in similar occupations. Although princesses, born and educated in palaces, they avoid levity and idleness, which they think unworthy of any who profess virginity, so they put such indolence far from their own life. For this reason the mercy of God is manifested and is conquering in behalf of their house; for He increases the emperor in years and government; every conspiracy and war concocted against him has been overthrown of itself.

Rituals in the imperial palace included reading passages from the Scriptures and fasting twice a week. The sisters gave up the luxurious jewelry and clothing worn by most women in the imperial palace. She dedicated her virginity to God and commanded her sisters to do the same. She did not allow any men to enter her palace to avoid opportunities for scandal and intrigue.

Aelia Pulcheria is portrayed very differently by two contemporary historians, Sozomenos [ΣΏΖΟΜΕΝΟΣ] and Sokrates Skolastikos [ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΌΣ]. In Sozomen’s account, she is represented as managing the Roman Empire in the early part of Theodosius’ reign. Socrates Scholasticus, however, omits her from his history. These two different perspectives probably relate to conflict between Pulcheria and Aelia Eudocia [Athenais [ΑΘΗΝΑΙΣ], Theodosius’ wife from 421.