Aelia Flavia Flaccilla was the wife of Theodosius I, who reigned 379 - 395 A.D., and mother of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius. She was born in Spain in the mid-fourth century to a prominent family. Her father, Antonius, was the Praefect of Gaul. In 376 she married a fellow Spaniard, Flavius Theodosius, who had just retired early from an army career because of the conviction and execution of his father, a high military commander, on treason charges. The following year saw the birth of her first child, Flavius Arcadius - the future Emperor Arcadius. In 378 her husband was summoned to active duty commanding the Roman forces facing the Visigoths on the Danube River. Theodosius succeeded in restoring Roman fortunes there (where the Emperor Valens had been killed at the battle of Hadrianopolis only months earlier - August 378), and was rewarded by the Emperor Gratian by being elevated to Augustus of the Eastern Empire on 19 January 379. Aelia Flaccilla thus found herself Empress, although the title of Augusta was withheld until the elevation of her son Arcadius to Augustus on January 19, 383. Another son, Flavius Honorius - the future Emperor Honorius - was born to her in September 384. She died in Thrace in 386 and is primarily remembered for her Christian piety and her benevolence to the poor. St. Ambrose describes her as "a soul true to God." Theodoret, in particular, exalts her humility, charity, and benevolence (Church History V.19, ed. Valesius, III, 192 sq.). He tells us how she personally tended the disabled. Aelia was honored by future empresses who took her first name as a title. She is commemorated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church; her feast day is 14 September.