Saint Paula
Encyclopedia
Saint Paula was an ancient Roman
saint
and early Desert Mother. A member of one of the richest "senatorial
" families which frivolously claimed descent from Agamemnon
, Paula was the daughter of Blesilla and Rogatus, from the great clan of the Furii Camilli. In her mid teens, Paula was married to the nobleman Toxotius, with whom she had four daughters, Blaesilla
, Paulina, Eustochium
, and Rufina. She also had a boy, also named Toxotius. We learn of Paula's early life through the writings of Saint Jerome
. In his Letter 108, he states that she had led a luxurious life and held a great status. She dressed in silks
, and had been carried about her city by her eunuch
slaves.
ed. She continued to dedicate herself to her family, but became more interested in religion as time went on.
Through the influence of St. Marcella
and her group, Paula became an enthusiastic member of this semi-monastic group of women. In 382, she met Saint Jerome
, who had come to Rome with St. Epiphanius
and Bishop Paulinus of Antioch. Born in Dalmatia
, Jerome had studied in Rome as a youth and had traveled to Germany
and Aquileia
, and for some years had lived in the East as an ascetic and scholar.
While on pilgrimage to the Holy Land
and Egypt
, she settled in Bethlehem
and established a monastery for men and a convent for women.
; Blesilla soon became a widow and died in 384. Of her two other daughters, Rufina died in 386, and Eustochium accompanied her mother to the Orient where she died in 419. Her son, Toxotius, at first not a Christian, but baptized in 385, married in 389 Laeta, daughter of the pagan priest Albinus. Of this marriage was born Paula the Younger, who in 404 rejoined Eustochium in the Holy Land
and in 420 closed the eyes of St. Jerome. These are the names which recur frequently in the letters of St. Jerome, where they are inseparable from that of Paula. It has been argued that Saint Eustochius
of Tours
was the brother of Paula the Younger and the son of Toxotius.
Paula helped Jerome in his translation of the Bible
from Hebrew and Greek
into Latin
. The work was done at her suggestion, and she provided the reference works necessary for the undertaking. Being versed in Hebrew, she edited Jerome's manuscripts. She and her daughter Eustochium copied the work for circulation.
An anecdote told of Jerome, of twelfth century origin, tells that Roman clergy hostile to Jerome planned to have him expelled from the city by planting a woman's robe next to his bed. When Jerome awoke in the middle of the night to attend the service of matins
, he absentmindedly put on the female robes. He was thus accused of having had a woman in his bed. This story acknowledges, while at the same time discrediting as a malicious slander, Jerome's relationship with women, such the kind he is presumed to have had with Paula.
Chaucer played upon the relationship between Jerome and Paula when he writes the Wife of Bath's Prologue. Chaucer has the Wife visit the same pilgrimage sites as did Paula, and has her constantly cite, not classical authors, but Jerome. Many of her comments are counter-arguments to those put forth by St. Jerome, mainly in his work Against Jovinianus
.
Palladius
, a contemporary of Jerome, believed that Paula was hindered by Jerome: "For though she was able to surpass all, having great abilities, he hindered her by his jealousy, having induced her to serve his own plan."
When Jerome died in late 419 or early 420, he was buried beneath the north aisle of the Church of the Nativity
, near the graves of Paula and Eustochium.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
and early Desert Mother. A member of one of the richest "senatorial
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
" families which frivolously claimed descent from Agamemnon
Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
, Paula was the daughter of Blesilla and Rogatus, from the great clan of the Furii Camilli. In her mid teens, Paula was married to the nobleman Toxotius, with whom she had four daughters, Blaesilla
Blaesilla
Blaesilla was the daughter of Paula, and sister of Eustochium, from one of the Senatorial families of Ancient Rome. Blaesilla died young, under the influence of Jerome. She, and her sister and mother , are accorded Sainthood by the Roman Catholic church.Blaesilla, as a young girl, showed a strong...
, Paulina, Eustochium
Eustochium
Saint Eustochium . Born Eustochium Julia at Rome, she was the daughter of Saint Paula and is also venerated as a saint and was an early Desert Mother. She was the third of four daughters of the Roman Senator Toxotius, for whom Jerome made a lot of fanciful claims of ancestry. After the death of...
, and Rufina. She also had a boy, also named Toxotius. We learn of Paula's early life through the writings of Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...
. In his Letter 108, he states that she had led a luxurious life and held a great status. She dressed in silks
Silks
Aerial silk is a type of performance in which one or more artists perform aerial acrobatics while hanging from a special fabric...
, and had been carried about her city by her eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
slaves.
Entering the religious life
At the age of 32, Paula was widowWidow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
ed. She continued to dedicate herself to her family, but became more interested in religion as time went on.
Through the influence of St. Marcella
Saint Marcella
Marcella is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. She was a Christian ascetic in ancient Rome. Growing up in Rome, she was influenced by her pious mother, Albina, an educated woman of wealth and benevolence. Childhood memories centered around piety, and one in particular related to Athanasius,...
and her group, Paula became an enthusiastic member of this semi-monastic group of women. In 382, she met Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...
, who had come to Rome with St. Epiphanius
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
and Bishop Paulinus of Antioch. Born in Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, Jerome had studied in Rome as a youth and had traveled to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Aquileia
Aquileia
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...
, and for some years had lived in the East as an ascetic and scholar.
While on pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, she settled in Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
and established a monastery for men and a convent for women.
Paula's family
Paula married her daughter, Paulina (d. 395), to the senator Saint PammachiusSaint Pammachius
Saint Pammachius was a Roman senator who is venerated as a saint.-Biography:In youth he frequented the schools of rhetoric with St. Jerome. In 385 he married Paulina, second daughter of St. Paula....
; Blesilla soon became a widow and died in 384. Of her two other daughters, Rufina died in 386, and Eustochium accompanied her mother to the Orient where she died in 419. Her son, Toxotius, at first not a Christian, but baptized in 385, married in 389 Laeta, daughter of the pagan priest Albinus. Of this marriage was born Paula the Younger, who in 404 rejoined Eustochium in the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
and in 420 closed the eyes of St. Jerome. These are the names which recur frequently in the letters of St. Jerome, where they are inseparable from that of Paula. It has been argued that Saint Eustochius
Eustochius
Saint Eustochius was the fifth bishop of Tours from 443 to 460. He was succeeded by his close relative, Saint Perpetuus. His extremely rare name suggests a possible connection to Saint Eustochium. T. S. M. Mommaerts & D. H...
of Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
was the brother of Paula the Younger and the son of Toxotius.
Relationship with Jerome
Jerome's enemies found that his denunciations of clerical indulgence and advocacy of self-denial were odd when they considered his close relationship with Paula. An amorous relationship between Jerome and Paula was suggested as having occurred.Paula helped Jerome in his translation of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
from Hebrew and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. The work was done at her suggestion, and she provided the reference works necessary for the undertaking. Being versed in Hebrew, she edited Jerome's manuscripts. She and her daughter Eustochium copied the work for circulation.
An anecdote told of Jerome, of twelfth century origin, tells that Roman clergy hostile to Jerome planned to have him expelled from the city by planting a woman's robe next to his bed. When Jerome awoke in the middle of the night to attend the service of matins
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
, he absentmindedly put on the female robes. He was thus accused of having had a woman in his bed. This story acknowledges, while at the same time discrediting as a malicious slander, Jerome's relationship with women, such the kind he is presumed to have had with Paula.
Chaucer played upon the relationship between Jerome and Paula when he writes the Wife of Bath's Prologue. Chaucer has the Wife visit the same pilgrimage sites as did Paula, and has her constantly cite, not classical authors, but Jerome. Many of her comments are counter-arguments to those put forth by St. Jerome, mainly in his work Against Jovinianus
Against Jovinianus
Against Jovinianus is a two-volume treatise by the Church Father Saint Jerome.-Jovinianus' propositions:Jovinianus, about whom little more is known than what is to be found in Jerome's treatise, published a Latin treatise outlining several opinions:...
.
Palladius
Palladius of Galatia
Palladius of Galatia was bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, and a devoted disciple of Saint John Chrysostom. He is best remembered for his work, the Lausiac History; he was also, in all probability, the author of the Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom....
, a contemporary of Jerome, believed that Paula was hindered by Jerome: "For though she was able to surpass all, having great abilities, he hindered her by his jealousy, having induced her to serve his own plan."
When Jerome died in late 419 or early 420, he was buried beneath the north aisle of the Church of the Nativity
Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth, and thus it is considered sacred by Christians...
, near the graves of Paula and Eustochium.