The life of St Apollinaria
In Jerusalem she dismissed most of her attendants and gave away her jewels and fine clothing, continuing on to Egypt with only two trusted servants, from whom she slipped away near Alexandria to live alone in the wilderness for a number of years. She then presented herself at a skete under the guidance of Macarius of Egypt, claiming to be a eunuch and taking the name Dorotheos, and was accepted there as a monk, distinguishing herself over time by the depth of her ascetic life. Meanwhile her father, grieving the loss of his elder daughter, faced a second sorrow when his younger daughter fell into a demonic affliction that made her appear pregnant and, the sources say, spoke through her accusing the very monk Dorotheos of having wronged her; soldiers were sent to bring the accused monk to Rome, and the sister's affliction was healed there through Dorotheos's own prayers. The sources agree that Dorotheos kept the secret of her sex to the very end: it was only when her body was prepared for burial after her death in the year 470 that those around her discovered she had been living among them as a woman all along. She is remembered as one of a small number of women who took on the disguise of a monk to pursue a life of ascetic solitude otherwise closed to them, a secret she kept until death made it impossible to keep any longer.
