Saint of the Day – 4 October – Saint Aurea of Paris (Died 666) Virgin, Abbess

Saint of the Day – 4 October – Saint Aurea of Paris (Died 666) Virgin, Abbess of Saint Martial Convent in Paris during the reigns of King Dagobert I and King Clovis II which Aurea ruled for 33 years, known as a Miracle-worker both before and after her death. Also known as – Aure. On some calendars, particularly in the Proper of Paris, St Aurea is venerated on 5 October owing to the conflict with St Francis’ Feast today.

The Roman Martyrology reads: “In Paris, still in France, Saint Aurea, Abbess, whom Saint Eligius placed at the head of a Monastery which he himself founded in this City under the rule of Saint Columba, in which he had gathered three hundred virgins.”

Daughter of Maurino and Quiria. St Aurea appears in works by two writers, St Wudoin and St Jonas of Bobbio (the renowned Abbot and disciple of St Columba and later Author of the Life of St Columba), in their Hagiographies of St Eligius and St Eustace. Both writers state that she was an immigrant to Paris from Syria.

In 633, Aurea was placed, by Saint Eligius (c588-660), at the head of a female Monastery, which he founded in Paris donating his own property for the founding of the first female Monastery in the region.

Aurea was in office from 633 to 666, the year in which she died on 3 (or 4) October, victim of a furious plague which caused the death of one hundred and sixty of her Nuns.

Her remains, were initially placed in the Church of St Paul, where the Nuns were then buried and were then taken to the Oratory of St Marziale. They were again transferred to St Paul’s and finally, in 1421, brought back to St Marziale but in 1792, during the Revolution, they were removed and distroyed, except for a portion of her Relics which were transferred to safety in Normandy. These might be those that are still safely held and venerated at the Church of St Eligius in Paris. In the same Church, there is also a mural of her receiving the veil from the hands of St Eloigius.

Many miracles were recorded through St Aurea’s prayers and intercession. She brought a woman back to life, in order to release a key from her dead hands. Aurea swept red-hot ashes out of an empty oven, causing perfectly baked loaves to appear and, long after her death, St Aurea cured and restored the sight of a blind woman with the touch of her cut-off (and freshly bleeding) arm.

“Good St Eligius” here where St Aurea and her Convent are mentioned:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/12/01/saint-of-the-day-1-december-good-st-eligius-st-eligius-of-noyon-c-588-660/