Galla of Rome
6th-century Roman widow and saint
Galla of Rome was a 6th-century Roman widow known for her generosity. She is considered a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Life
Galla was the daughter of Roman patrician Symmachus the Younger, who was appointed consul in 485. Galla was also the sister-in-law of Boethius. Her father, Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, was condemned to death, unjustly, by Theodoric in 525. Galla had been married at a relatively young age, but was soon widowed, just over a year after her marriage.
Being wealthy, she decided to retreat to the Vatican Hill, and founded a hospital and a convent near St. Peter's Basilica. Galla is reputed to have once healed a deaf and mute girl, by blessing some water, and giving it to the girl to drink.
Galla remained there for the rest of her life, tending to the sick and poor, before dying in 550.
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This entry incorporates text from “Galla of Rome” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.