She was a glorious Catholic virgin who was burned at the stake at Chalcedon, in Asia Minor, for her Faith and her purity. She is one of the many venerated virgin martyrs of the Church.
The image below depicts a miracle involving Saint Euphemia at the Council of Chalcedon, which took place in 451, 144 years after the martyrdom of Saint Euphemia. Here is a description of the miracle (source):
The Fourth Ecumenical Council convened in the city of Chalcedon in the year 451. The 630 delegates gathered in the church of Saint Euphemia where her holy relics were housed. The council repudiated the Eutychian doctrine of monophysitism, and set forth the Chalcedonian Creed, which describes the “full humanity and full divinity” of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
Both the Monophysite and Orthodox parties were well-represented at the council, so the meetings were quite contentious, and no decisive consensus could be reached. The holy Patriarch Anatolius of Constantinople proposed that the Council submit the decision of the Church dispute to the Holy Spirit, through His undoubted bearer St. Euphemia the All-Praised. The Orthodox hierarchs and their opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed them with their seals. They opened the tomb of the saint and placed both scrolls upon her bosom. Then, in the presence of the emperor Marcian (450-457), the participants of the Council sealed the tomb, putting on it the imperial seal and setting a guard to watch over it for three days. During these days both sides imposed upon themselves strict fasting and prayer. After three days the patriarch and the emperor, in the presence of the Council, opened the tomb and found the scroll with the Orthodox confession was held by St Euphemia in her right hand, while the scroll of the heretics lay at her feet. St. Euphemia, as though alive, raised her hand and gave the scroll to the patriarch. As a result of this miracle, many of the heretics accepted the Orthodox confession, while those remaining obstinant in their heresy were consigned to the Council’s condemnation and excommunication.
This miracle is attested by a letter sent by the council to Pope Leo I:
“For it was God who worked, and the triumphant Euphemia who crowned the meeting as for a bridal, and who, taking our definition of the Faith as her own confession, presented it to her Bridegroom by our most religious Emperor and Christ-loving Empress, appeasing all the tumult of opponents and establishing our confession of the Truth as acceptable to Him, and with hand and tongue setting her seal to the votes of us all in proclamation thereof.”
The miracle of St. Euphemia the Great Martyr at the 4th Ecumenical Council (source).
