The Church honors the memory of Saint Emilia today. Everyone who bears the names Emilia, Emil, Emilian, Emiliana, Emma and Emily celebrates their name day, writes offnews.bg.
The name comes from the Latin word aemilius and means "rival". People with this name also celebrate on August 8, when we honor St. Emilian the Confessor.
Saint Emilia came from a noble family and was the mother of Saints Basil the Great and Macrina, she had five more daughters and three sons. Two of the saint's brothers - bishops Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste, are also canonized as Orthodox Christian saints. After raising her children, most of them left her home, leaving only the eldest daughter of the saint, who, together with her mother, founded the first nunnery.
While still alive, Emilia divided all her property into equal parts, which she distributed to her children, freeing all the slaves. Many of the freed ones converted to Christianity and lived with the saint and her eldest daughter in the monastery. Saint Emilia lived to a ripe old age, and after her death she was buried in a small family chapel near her husband and sons, whatever her wishes.
On this day, the tradition is to divide the bread at the table into equal parts among relatives, so that there are no scandals between them and everyone can remember the charity between people.