Anthusa became an ascetic at a young age, living in the mountains near Constantinople in complete solitude.
[1] She openly defied Emperor Constantine V's iconoclastic prohibitions, so she, her nuns, and her nephew, who was abbot of the second monastery, were arrested and tortured.
When Anthusa correctly prophesied that the emperor's wife, who was close to death from childbirth, would safely deliver twins, a boy and a girl, the empress intervened.
[1][2][3] Anthusa's life was spared, and the empress donated several estates to her.
[3] The empress' daughter was named after Anthusa, educated by her, and also became a saint, founding the first orphanage in the Christian world.