"good cheer", 410–470),[1][2] also called Euphrosynē,[3] was a saint who disguised herself as a male to enter a monastery and live, for 38 years, as an ascetic.

During the final year of her life, Euphrosyne became her father's spiritual director, comforting his grief over losing his only daughter.

According to Johann Peter Kirsch in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian virgins, in order the more successfully to lead the life of celibacy and asceticism to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men".

[4] Euphrosyne was born in 410,[5] into a wealthy and illustrious family in Alexandria, the only daughter of Paphnutius, "a deeply believing and pious Christian".

[6] Paphnutius and his wife were having difficulty having children, so he went to a local monastery, which he visited often, and requested that the abbot, who was his spiritual advisor, and monks pray for them; Euphrosyne was born shortly afterwards.

[5] Smaragdus moved deeper into the desert to a solitary cell, reciting his prayers alone, without the rest of the community, and as Swan also said, grew to love "the intense solitude",[10] eventually only seeing his spiritual director and the abbot.

[13] Clark also says that Eugenia and Euphrosyne's stories, which both include the aid of servants and the use of disguise to escape into a life of religious seclusion, "are typical of tales of lovers thwarting unwanted marriages.

[8] Eventually, in the last year before her death, she revealed to Paphnutius her secret; they reconciled, and she requested that he tell no one and that he prepare her body for burial.