Born Athenais in Athens, Eudocia is the name Athenais took when she was baptised a Christian in Constantinople to enable her to marry the Emperor Theodosius II. The Name Aelia she acquired as the standard female imperial name of the Theodosian dynasty after Aelia Flaccilla, Theodosius II's paternal grandmother. Though not born a Christian, Eudocia was famed for her piety. She was involved in the Third Oecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431, and, after a major arguement with her powerful sister-in-law, Pulcheria, spent much of her time in Jerusalem, where she founded churches and eventually died ten years after her husband in 460. She was later considered an Orthodox saint.

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