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Aelia Pulcheria (January 19, 399
399

Events...
 – 453) was the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor
List of Byzantine Emperors

This is a list of the Emperors of the late Eastern Roman Empire, commonly known as the Byzantine Empire by modern historians. This list does not include numerous co-emperors who never attained sole or senior status as rulers....
 Arcadius
Arcadius

Flavius Arcadius was Roman Emperors in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire from 395 until his death.Arcadius was born in Spain, the elder son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Flavius Augustus Honorius, who would become a Western Roman Emperor....
 and Aelia Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia

Aelia Eudoxia was the Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire emperor Arcadius....
.

As the elder sister of Theodosius II
Theodosius II

Flavius Theodosius , called the Calligrapher, known in English as Theodosius II, was an Eastern Roman Empire , mostly known for the law code bearing his name, the Codex Theodosianus, and the Walls of Constantinople#The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople built during his reign....
, she held much of the power when he came to the throne as a child in 408. She took a vow of virginity to avoid being forced into a marriage, and tended to rely on the support of the various Germanic military officers she appointed, such as the Alan
Alans

The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatians people, Eurasian nomads of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian language and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian language....
 Aspar
Aspar

Flavius Ardabur Aspar , an Alans, was patrician and magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire.Son of the magister Ardaburius, Aspar played a crucial role in his father's expedition in 424 to defeat the western roman usurper, Joannes of Ravenna, and to install Galla Placidia and her son, Valentinian III, in his place....
. By 416 Theodosius was capable of ruling by himself, but she remained a very strong influence, having had herself proclaimed Empress in 414.






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Aelia Pulcheria (January 19, 399
399

Events...
 – 453) was the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor
List of Byzantine Emperors

This is a list of the Emperors of the late Eastern Roman Empire, commonly known as the Byzantine Empire by modern historians. This list does not include numerous co-emperors who never attained sole or senior status as rulers....
 Arcadius
Arcadius

Flavius Arcadius was Roman Emperors in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire from 395 until his death.Arcadius was born in Spain, the elder son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Flavius Augustus Honorius, who would become a Western Roman Emperor....
 and Aelia Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia

Aelia Eudoxia was the Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire emperor Arcadius....
.

As the elder sister of Theodosius II
Theodosius II

Flavius Theodosius , called the Calligrapher, known in English as Theodosius II, was an Eastern Roman Empire , mostly known for the law code bearing his name, the Codex Theodosianus, and the Walls of Constantinople#The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople built during his reign....
, she held much of the power when he came to the throne as a child in 408. She took a vow of virginity to avoid being forced into a marriage, and tended to rely on the support of the various Germanic military officers she appointed, such as the Alan
Alans

The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatians people, Eurasian nomads of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian language and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian language....
 Aspar
Aspar

Flavius Ardabur Aspar , an Alans, was patrician and magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire.Son of the magister Ardaburius, Aspar played a crucial role in his father's expedition in 424 to defeat the western roman usurper, Joannes of Ravenna, and to install Galla Placidia and her son, Valentinian III, in his place....
. By 416 Theodosius was capable of ruling by himself, but she remained a very strong influence, having had herself proclaimed Empress in 414. That year she had Theodosius remove all pagan
Paganism

Paganism is the blanket term given to describe religions and spiritual practices of pre-Christian Europe, and by extension a term for polytheistic?traditions or folk religion?worldwide seen from a Western or Christian viewpoint....
s from the civil service; she was a devout Christian and under her influence both Theodosius and his wife Aelia Eudocia
Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia Augusta , wife of Theodosius II, Byzantine Emperors, was born in Athens.She was the daughter of the sophist Leontius, from whom she received a thorough training in literature and rhetoric....
 (a former pagan) became devout Christians as well. In 421 Theodosius declared war on Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, due to Pulcheria's influence, apparently because the Persians were persecuting Christians. She did not oppose Arianism
Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heresy at the First Council of Nicea, later exonerated and then pronounced a heretic again after his death....
, the form of Christianity practised by the Germanic tribes. Theodosius originally supported Archbishop Nestorius, but Pulcheria, with the help of Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria

Saint Cyril of Alexandria was the Pope of Alexandria when Alexandria was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th, and 5th centuries....
, convinced him to return to Orthodoxy. Nestorius was exiled in 435. Pulcheria also convinced her brother to exile the Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s and destroy their synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
s in Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
.

In 441 Chrysaphius
Chrysaphius

Chrysaphius was a eunuch at the Eastern Roman court, who became the chief minister of Theodosius II. Effectively the ruler of the empire, he pursued a policy of appeasement towards the Huns, which cost the empire far more gold than any military campaign, while amassing a vast fortune in bribes himself....
, a eunuch
Eunuch

A eunuch is a castrated man, in particular one castrated early enough to have major hormonal consequences; the term usually refers to those castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common in many societies of the past....
, convinced Theodosius to dismiss Pulcheria, although Chrysaphius simply took her place leaving Theodosius with little power. Pulcheria became a nun, but by 450, when Theodosius died, Pulcheria had been allowed to return to court. Chrysaphius and Pulcheria struggled for control after Theodosius' death; Pulcheria allied with the Germanic military officers, and married one of Aspar's generals, Marcian
Marcian

Flavius Marcianus, known in English as Marcian, was the List of Byzantine Emperors of the Byzantine Empire from 450 until his death. Marcian's rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the emperor protected from external menaces and reformed economically and financially....
, declaring that Theodosius had declared Marcian his successor. The marriage was arranged with the understanding that he respect Pulcheria's vow of chastity. Pulcheria then had Marcian execute Chrysaphius.

In 451 she helped organize the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon

The Council of Chalcedon is believed to have been the fourth ecumenical council by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. It was held from 8 October to 1 November 451 at Chalcedon , today the district of Kadik?y on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, incorporated into the city of Istanbul....
 to condemn Nestorianism. The Council also condemned the Second Council of Ephesus
Second Council of Ephesus

The Second Council of Ephesus was a church synod in 449 AD. It was convoked by Emperor Theodosius II as an Ecumenical council but because of the controversial proceedings it was not accepted as Ecumenical, labelled a Latrocinium and later repudiated at the Council of Chalcedon....
 (which its opponents called the "Robber Synod") of 449, which had supported the Monophysite heresy and the Monophysite abbot Eutyches
Eutyches

Eutyches was a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople. He first came to notice in 431 at the council of Ephesus, for his vehement opposition to the teachings of Nestorius; his condemnation of Nestorianism as heresy precipitated his being denounced as a heretic himself....
, who was deposed and exiled at Chalcedon. At Chalcedon Pulcheria declared Flavian of Constantinople a martyr, after his deposition at the Robber Synod and his death at the hands of the supporters of Eutyches, whom he had opposed.

Pulcheria also commissioned many new churches in Constantinople, especially to the Virgin Mary. Among them the most important is the Church of St. Mary of the Blachernae
Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)

Saint Mary of Blachernae is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul. The little edifice, built in 1867, got the same dedication as the shrine erected in this place in the fifth century which, until its destruction in 1434, was one of the most important sanctuaries of Greek Orthodox Church Orthodox Church....
. She died in July, 453, leaving Aspar as the dominant influence on Marcian, who himself died in 457. Pulcheria is recognized as a saint
Saint

A saint in Christianity is a human being who has been called to holiness. The term is used differently by various denominations, with some, such as the Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans distinguishing between Saints and saints....
 by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Aunt and namesake

Pulcheria was also the name of a daughter of Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
 and Aelia Flaccilla
Aelia Flaccilla

Aelia Flavia Flaccilla , first wife of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. She was of Hispania Rome descent. During her marriage to Theodosius, she gave birth to two sons — future Emperors Arcadius and Honorius — and a daughter, Pulcheria ....
. She was born in 378 and died in 385.

Works inspired by the life of Pulchérie


In 1672, Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille

File:Pierre Corneille 3.jpgPierre Corneille was a French tragedy who was one of the three great seventeenth Century French dramatists, along with Moli?re and Jean Racine....
 wrote Pulchérie, a comedy inspired by the end of the life of the empress and her marriage with Marcian.

See also

  • Icon of the Hodegetria
  • Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria
    Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria

    The Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in Constantinople was founded by Saint Pulcheria in the 5th century. Saint Pulcheria was the daughter of Emperor Arcadius....