Wishing to lead an ascetic life, she abandoned her home and stayed with an acquaintance, Susanna, to whom she entrusted her daughter.

Afraid her husband would find her, she cut her hair, dressed in men's clothes, and presented herself at the monastery of St. Bassianus as a eunuch named Babylos.

But as her husband continued to search for her Bassianus suggested that she go to a woman's monastery in Emesa, where she eventually became abbess.

Her husband subsequently found her and followed her to Jerusalem, Syria, and Beirut, where she lived as an ascetic in an ancient pagan temple.

Her life was told through a vita prima whose author and exact time period remains a mystery.