Tarsilla was an aunt of Pope St Gregory the Great. Gregory writes that his father, the senator Gordian, had three sisters, Tarsilla, Emiliana and Gordiana. They vowed themselves to God and lived a life of virginity, fasting and prayer in their family home on the Clivus Scauri in Rome. Gordiana did not persevere and returned to the world.

Gregory tells that after many years, Pope St Felix III, an ancestor of theirs, appeared to Tarsilla and called her to glory. She died on Christmas Eve, seeing Jesus beckoning to her. A few days later she appeared to Emiliana and invited her to keep the Epiphany in heaven.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 71 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

A few days after her death, which took place on December the 24th, she appeared to her sister iEmiliana, and invited her to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany with her in eternal bliss. AEmiliana fell sick, and died on the 8th of January, on which day she is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. Gordiana is unnoticed in the Martyrology; S. Gregory indeed hints that his youngest aunt went to perdition.

Aunts of St. Gregory the Great, virgins in the sixth century, given in the Roman Martyrology, the former on 24 December, the latter on 5 January. St. Gregory (Hom. XXXVIII, 15, on the Gospel of St. Matthew, and Lib. Dial., IV, 16) relates that his father, the Senator Gordian, had three sisters who vowed themselves to God and led a life of virginity, fasting, and prayer in their own home on the Clivus Scauri in Rome. They were Trasilla (Tarsilla, Tharsilla, Thrasilla), Emiliana, and Gordiana. Gordiana, led on at first by the words and example of her sisters, did not persevere but returned to the vanities of the world. After many years in the service of God, St. Felix III, an ancestor, appeared to Trasilla and bade her enter her abode of glory. On the eve of Christmas she died, seeing Jesus beckoning. A few days later she appeared to Emiliana, who had followed well in her footsteps, and invited her to the celebration of Epiphany in heaven. Tradition says that their relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] and those of their mother, St. Silvia, are in the Oratory of St. Andrew on the Celian Hill.