CHAPTER III

THE VIRTUES AND PIETY OF PULCHERIA, AND OF HER SISTERS

IT is said that God, on many occasions, revealed future events to Pulcheria, and conferred on her, and on her sisters, many special indications of favour. They all pursue the same mode of life; they are sedulous in their attendance in the house of prayer, and evince great charity towards strangers and the poor. These sisters generally take their meals and walks together, and pass their days and their nights together in singing the praises of God. Like other exemplary women, they employ themselves in weaving, and in similar occupations. Although of royal birth, and educated in palaces, they avoid idleness, as unworthy of the life of virginity to which they have devoted themselves. The favour of God has been, for their sakes, manifested towards their family, and the state; and the emperor, in proportion as he has grown in years, has increased in power, while all seditions and wars undertaken against him have spontaneously come to nought.