Eudoxia - Princess of the Vandals

The modern Basiclia in École Biblique Jerusalem 

Built on location of Aelia Eudoxia's Church of St. Stephens

Queen of the heart

The fate of the Kingdom of Vandals was to succumb to the superpower of East Roman Empire and to vanish from the surface of the earth. The Vandal branch of Arian Christianity was cut off the Wine tree of Christ and disappears with hardly a memory of it surviving in the Church.

In this momentous story there is one particularly interesting woman whose central role in the events of pruning the Vine tree is not so easy to notice. Men have written the history of Goths and Vandals, Jordanes, Procopius and others, and they tend to concentrate on manly things, theological controversies, wars and politics.

But the truth is that behind the major historical events are things that happen in secret in human hearts. And women have had some impact on the hearts of men, as we know. Jesus Christ knows this and uses skilfully family connections and webs of social relations to advance His kingdom about which He once said:

And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:20-21 ASV

Young Eudoxia
Our heroine Eudoxia (or Eudocia) was born in 439 silver spoon in her mouth. She was the eldest daughter in the royal family of Valentinian III, Emperor of Western Rome from 425 to his murder by two Scythians on 16 March 455.

Her mother Licinia Eudoxia (422-462) was also of the highest royal blood, her father being nothing less than the Emperor of East Rome, Theodosius II the Younger (401-450). This man built those amazing Theodosian Walls of Constantinople that withstood thousand years of fierce attacks and still stand in today's Istanbul. He is also remembered as an important lawmaker as Theodosian Code affected the lives of everyone in the Byzantine empire.

Her grandmother was another highly influential - and little known - woman in the Kingdom of Christ, Aelia Eudoxia (401-460) the wife and supporter of emperor Theodosius II. She was banished from the court and moved to Jerusalem on 443 and there on October 20 460. She was buried in the Church of St. Stephens. Today, the church is in the area of the famed Dominican monastery and research centre École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem (EBAF) in the eastern part of the city.

The marriage of Eudoxia's parents on 424 must have been quite an occasion: the groom was a manly four years old and the bride barely two!

So when young Eudoxia was betrothed at the age of five to become the future wife of Huneric, the son of the mighty king of Vandals Genseric, she was already quite old - relatively speaking...


Serious complications with marriage plans
Things did not always go quite as planned by men and women in high places.

Little Eudoxia was growing up as princesses do and eagerly waited in the Carthage as the future queen. Her early engagement was a tool of diplomacy with the intention to strengthen the friendship between East Roman Empire and the scary Vandal Kingdom in North Africa.

But when Eudoxia was 16 years old her father was murdered. A very smart and stupid man called Petronius Maximus (396- 31 May 455) was behind the schemes and promptly took power in Constantinople - for an amazing total of seventy five days.

This fellow did not waist time. He forced the widow of Valentinian III, Licinia Eudoxia, to marry him. That might still have been okay in the politics of the time but then he did something you do not do with Vandals - he cancelled the engagement of Eudoxia with the son of their king.

Instead of Huneric, Eudoxia would be married to Palladium, the son of Petronius Maximus.

Huh. Maximum stupidity!

It did not matter that angry mob stoned Petronius to death on May 31 455. Insulted king Genseric was already sailing with his troops and he was really on bad mood.

Soon the entire city of Rome would be sacked in such a horrific way that the world still remembers it trembling. After all, that is from where the word "vandalism" comes.

And yes, the girl was taken to Carthage and married five years later, on 460, to Huneric as had been agreed earlier on. Eudoxia was 21 years old when she became the First Lady of Carthage.


Seed of destruction
Things did not go quite as planned by men and women in high places.

Princess Eudoxia was not some weakling from corrupt Roman nobility - no! She obviously was an exceptional woman, a powerful character who could withstand the force and fanaticism of her Arian husband, King Huneric. He is remembered as the most active persecutor of Nicene Christians in Vandal Kingdom.

Eudoxia kept her faith and her son, Hilderic, wanted to be a Nicene Christian following in his heart the faith of her mother and not of his father. Such conversion was officially forbidden in Huneric's kingdom. We can only imagine what kind of tensions there were in the court and how the education of the boy - especially his Christian education - developed at these tumultuous years.

We see hear the real King of Hearts at action but quietly and secretly, behind the scenes... where it matters.

And yes, this was the seed of destruction that led eventually to the utter destruction of Vandal Kingdom.

For it was the royal messing up by Arian Christian Gelimer with the son of Eudoxia - king Hilderic (523-530), the friend of Emperor Justine the Great - that eventually was the cause of the utter destruction of the Vandal Kingdom.

To Jerusalem
The writers of the wikipedia article on Princess Eudocia say

At some time following the birth of Hilderic, Eudocia withdrew to Jerusalem due to religious differences with her Arian husband. She died there and was buried in the sepulcher of her grandmother, Aelia Eudocia.

This is not what I wrote above claiming that Eudoxia was present in the court of Carthage and influenced the Christian education of her son. Historical sources are needed to decide who is right in this matter!

It is truly appropriate that Princess Eudoxia was buried in the same Church of St. Stepehens that her grandmother had built and was buried in. The two ladies were obviously cut from the same noble and upright tree and the King of Kings gave them both crucial but very different roles in the Kingdom of Heaven.