Saint Gorgonia (died 23 February 375) was the daughter of Saint Gregory the Elder

Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder

Gregory the Elder, or Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder, was the bishop of the see of Nazianzus in Roman province of Cappadocia...

 and Saint Nonna

Nonna of Nazianzus

Saint Nonna of Nazianzus was the wife of Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder, and the mother of Gregory the Theologian, Caesarius, and Gorgonia. She lived in Cappadocia, a province of the Roman Empire in present-day central Turkey.-Life:...

. She is remembered in both Western and Eastern Churches for her piety as a married woman.

Biography

Gorgonia married a man of some influence in Pisidia

Pisidia

Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...

, sometimes called Vitolian, and other times, Meletius. By at least one account, she is called the "pattern of a married saint." She had several sons and three daughters, the most notable of whom was named Alypania. Later in her life, she converted her husband, and was baptized

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 along with him and her sons and grandsons.

Two times in her life, she was miraculously cured

Miracle

A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...

 of serious maladies. The first of these was her having been trampled by a team of mule

Mule

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

s, causing her broken bones and crushed internal organs. Yet, Gorgonia would have no doctor, as she thought it indecent. According to the legend, it was this modesty which cured her.

Another time, she cured herself of a desperate illness by anointing herself with "the sacred elements of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

" mixed with her own tears, which she had shed with her head on the altar. She was cured of this disease as she was of the first, the symptom

Symptom

A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality...

s of headache

Headache

A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...

, fever

Fever

Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

, paralysis

Paralysis

Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...

, and sporadic coma

Coma

In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...

 disappearing, allegedly, through the strength of her prayer.

Gorgonia died circa 375 of natural causes. Her father and mother were alive, though extremely old, at the time of her death. At her funeral, her brother Gregory of Nazianzus the Younger

Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age...

 preached a eulogy which declared her a model Christian spouse and mother, as well as "The Paragon of Women" and "The Diamond of Her Sex."

Veneration

Saint Gorgonia is venerated as the patron saint of people afflicted by bodily ills or sickness. The legacy of her charity has earned her the titles "Mother of Orphans", "Eyes of the Blind", and "Keeper of a Refuge of the Poor" in the Greek Orthodox Church

Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...

. Her feast day on the calendar of saints

Calendar of saints

The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint...

is 9 December in the West and 23 February in the East, the latter date purported to be that of her death.