“Pelagia.” “Pelagia meretix” or “Pelagia
mima,” a beautiful actress who led the life of a prostitute at Antioch.
She was converted by the holy bishop Nonnus, and disguised as a man went on
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where for many years she led the life of
extremist mortification and penance in a grotto on the Mount of Olives.
This “ienheureuse pécheresse” attained to such heights of
sanctity that she was canonized, and in the East, where her cult was long
very popular, her festival is kept on 8 October, which is also the day of
her commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.