Pharaildis

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Pharaildis
birth_date=c. 650
death_date=c. 740
feast_day=4 January


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birth_place=Ghent, Belgium
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titles=Virgin
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attributes=shown with a goose at her feetcite web | last =Rabenstein | first =Katherine | title =Pharaïldis of Ghent V (AC) | work =Saints O' the Day for January 4 | month =March | year =1999 | url =http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0104.htm | accessdate =2007-02-17]
patronage=Bruay, France; childhood diseases; difficult marriages; Ghent, Belgium; victims of abuse; widowscite web | last = Jones | first = Terry | title =Pharaildis | work = Patron Saints Index | url=http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintp47.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-17]
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Saint Pharaildis ( _nl. Veerle), patron saint of Ghent, was married against her will at a young age with a nobleman, even after having made a private vow of virginity. Her husband insisted that she was married to him, and her sexual fidelity was owed to him, not God. She was therefore physically abused for her refusal to submit to him, and for her late night visits to churches. When widowed, she was still a virgin. According the "Vita Gudilae" Pharaildis was the sister of Saint Gudula, Saint Reineldis, and Saint Emebert, but this is not confirmed in her own biography, the "Vita Pharaildis".

Veneration

The cult of Pharaildis has been documented as early as the ninth century. She carries a goose as her insignia.

Several miracles are attributed to the saint. Legend says that Pharaildis caused a well to spring up whose waters cured sick children, turned some bread hidden by a miserly woman into stone,cite web | last =Jones | first =G. R. | title =Pharaildis, virgin (c. 740) | work =Saints at a Glance | publisher =University of Leicester | date =22 June 2005 | url =http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1/ssaints.html | accessdate =2007-02-17] and there are accounts of a "goose miracle," in which Pharaildis resuscitated a cooked bird working only from its skin and bones.cite book | last =Wolfgang | first =Behringer | coauthors =(Trans. by H. C. Eric Midelfort) | title =Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night | publisher =University of Virginia Press | year =1998 | pages =42-43 | url =http://books.google.com/books?id=N1dlPFIpT_8C&dq=saint+pharaildis+geese]

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