order had been committed, should, with the virgins under her authority, "be given up to the sport of the pagans, so as to lose her virgin modesty, convened all the sisterhood to a chapter, and buret forth in the following words, saying, "There ! have lately come into our district most wicked pagans, men ignorant of every kind of humanity, who traverse every part of ; this region, and spare neither the sex of females nor the age ! of infants. They trample upon churches and ecclesiastical persons, they defile women bound by the holiest vows, and crush and destroy whatever they meet with. Therefore, if you are willing to adopt my advice, I entertain certain hopes, founded on the divine mercy, that we shall be able to escape the rage of the barbarians, and to preserve the modesty of our perpetual maidenhood." And when the entire assembly of the virgins had given her their pledge and most solemn promise that they were desirous to obey her maternal injunction in all things, then that abbess of admirable courage, openly giving to all the sisters an example of chastity which should be profitable not only to those nuns, but which should be worthy of being followed by all succeeding virgins, and by all who should at any time exist, took a razor, and cut off her nose, and her upper lip close to the very teeth, and so made herself a shocking sight to all the bystanders. And as the whole assembly which beheld this memorable deed admired it, they all inflicted similar treatment on themselves, and followed the example of their mother. Apd after these things had been done in this manner, the next morning, at dawn, those most wicked tyrants came, in order to deliver up those holy women devoted to God, to be the sport of their soldiery, and to plunder the monastery itself, and burn it with fire. But when they beheld that abbess and every one of the sisters so shamefully mutilated, and steeped in their own gore from head to foot, they retreated in haste from that place, as it appeared too long for them to remain on that spot for even a brief space of time. And the before-mentioned generals, retreating from that place, ordered their wicked guards to hurl fire upon it, and so burn up the monastery itself, with all ita offices, and the nuns themselves. And when these commands had been executed accordingly by those ministers of iniquity, the holy abbess, and all those most holy virgins with her, arrived at the glory of martyrdom. And when these things had been done in this manner, those