Date
Meaning & History
French form of Staurophila. The use of this name was probably inspired by Le chemin royal de la croix (1676), which is one of the earliest French translations of Regia Via Crucis (1635), an important counter-reformation devotional emblem book written by the Dutch-born Flemish Benedictine monk Benedictus van Haeften (1588-1648). The main character of his book is called Staurophila, whose name was gallicized to Staurophile in the French translations of the book. Later translations tend to include her name in the title, such as Staurophile, ou la voie royale de la croix (1859).