ANTHUSA (Saint) Virgin (July 27) (8th century) Various versions are given of the life of this Saint. All agree that she was a Greek maiden of Constantinople, distinguished by her zeal for the Catholic practice of the veneration of holy pictures, and that she thereby incurred the indignation of the Iconoclast Emperors of the period. It also seems certain that she was at least once arrested and put to the torture. But, while some say that she died in exile, others have it that she was recalled and taken into favour by the Empress, wife of Constantine Copronymus, and that she died peacefully at Constantinople in extreme old age. There is further a tradition that the Empress named one of her daughters after this holy woman, and that this second Anthusa also became a Saint and was venerated in the East as such.
