Aurea of San Millán

Saint Aurea of San Millán
Born	1043 Villavelayo, Taifa of Zaragoza
Died	11 March 1070 San Millán de la Cogolla, Kingdom of Pamplona
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (Spain)Europe
Major shrine	Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja, Spain, Europe
Feast	11 March
Patronage	Villavelayo, La Rioja, Spain

Saint Aurea or Oria (from the Latin: golden) (1043-1070), was a Spanish anchorite saint attached to the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, in the Spanish Province of La Rioja (Europe). She is commemorated on 11 March.

Aurea was born in 1043 in the village of Villavelayo, then part of the Taifa of Zaragoza, a region controlled by the Moors. According to tradition, her mother was St. Amunia. As a child, she studied the Scriptures and the lives of the early martyrs of the Church under the guidance of a monk named Munio, who would later write her vita. Her favorite saints to meditate upon and to try to imitate were Saint Agatha, Saint Eulalia and Saint Cecilia.

When she was aged nine, Amunia and Aurea decided to leave the world and to embrace a life of asceticism. They went to the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, where they appealed to the prior, Dominic (later founder and namesake of the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos) for help in this. After some consideration as to how to proceed, for Aurea Prior Dominic had a narrow anchorhold built for her in the wall of the monastery church, with a small window through which she could see the altar, and another to the outside. He then consecrated her and had her walled into her new cell.

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