Tarsilla (Tharsilla, Trasilla, Thrasilla) and Emiliana (Aemiliana, Emilie) were sisters and came from an ancient Roman noble family, the gens Anicia. Their brother, Senator Gordian, was a very rich patrician with a magnificent townhouse on the Caelian Hill and large estates in Sicily.[1]
Gregory (Hom. XXXVIII, 15, on the Gospel of St. Matthew, and Lib. Dial., IV, 16) relates that his father, the Senator Gordian, had three sisters: Trasilla, Emiliana, and Gordiana. All three had devoted themselves to a religious life and led a life of virginity, fasting, and prayer.[2] They practiced their faith in their father’s house, located on the Clivus Scauri in Rome.[3] Gordiana, at first as devout as her sisters, later abandoned this calling and is thus not venerated as a saint.
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