ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 7th of October
EUSTOCHIUM, WIDOW
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| A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's Saints' books, "Stammenbuch..." (1693) |
Eustochium, a noble Roman lady, was wedded to a nobleman of Cartana, whom she had married at an early age.
The fiery sermons of the blessed Father Matthew of Agrigento moved her to renounce the world. In her eighteenth year she took the habit of the Third Order, in which she excelled in vigil, fasting, and diligent church attendance. She went to the hospitals, ministered to the sick with great love and gave them plentiful alms, although she had to put up with bitter reproaches and persecutions from her worldly husband, which she endured with the greatest patience for the love of God.
Because she lived in a childless marriage for a long time, she asked God through the Queen of Heaven for a daughter and vowed to dedicate her to the service of God in a nunnery. When she was heard, she called this fruit of her prayers Smaragda, and after the death of her husband fulfilled her vow by taking her daughter to the monastery of Saint Elisabeth. Here this virgin, worthy of her mother, excelled in piety before her fellow sisters, and lived and died in the reputation of holiness. Eustochium herself died in A.D. 1486, and our source calls her "blessed." (Sz.)
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861, p. 134)
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org
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