Biography
Isidora of Tabenna
About Isidora of Tabenna
Isidora of Tabenna is remembered in Eastern Orthodox tradition as a nun in Egypt, commemorated on May 10. The Orthodox Church in America recounts her kitchen work and mistreatment in a story closely matching the unnamed woman in Palladius’s Lausiac History.
Palladius describes a woman who wore rags on her head and worked in the kitchen while other nuns mistreated her. He recounts an angelic vision directing the ascetic Piteroum to visit her. When Piteroum honored her, the sisters acknowledged their conduct. The vision is part of Palladius’s religious account.
The story ends with the woman leaving the monastery after receiving attention from the community. Palladius says that her later whereabouts and death were unknown; the surviving account does not supply a complete life.
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