Acts of Saint Eugenia, 10

Acts of Saint Eugenia, 10

Written c. 280 CE.

Source: Conybeare, F. C. 1894. The Apology and Acts of Apollonius: And Other Monuments of Early Christianity, p. 170-171. Swan Sonnenshein & Co.

At all seasons she devoted herself, and was accessible to the brethren, and would exhort and advise them continually not to say anything to anyone under oath, but to use sober speech; and she would say to them: “Let us learn from His commands how much reverence we the servants of God ought to shew. Let us therefore be careful to have in our hearts all due zeal and enthusiasm, for in no wise ought God to be neglected by us; for it is in this wise that a man denies his Lord, who teaches others to do what He has forbidden." So when they learned from her all this, they were confirmed in the faith, and from morning to night they remitted not the study of the divine writings. But she was so precious to God that she could cast out devils, and to the sick healing was through her vouchsafed by God.

Note: [T]here is the extreme simplicity of the dogmatic teaching, and the stress laid on the moral teaching of Christ. Eugenia does not instruct her monks to believe in the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, or in the Trinity. Humility and abstention from use of oaths are the staple of her teaching. Conybeare, p. 154.