Friends and
Patrons
 Paula
of Bethlehem (c. 347 - 404)
Also known as Paulina; Pauline the Widow
St. Paula was born 5 May c. 347 in Rome to a
patrician Christian family that was related to the Scipios and to the
Gracchi. Married at the age of 15 to Toxotius, she bore him five
children - a son, Toxotius, and four daughters,
Eustochium,
Blaesilla (or Blesilla), Paulina, and Rufina.
She gave hospitality to Saint Epiphanius of
Salamis and Saint Paulinus of Antioch, when they visited Rome. Some say
that it was through these saints that Paula met Saint Jerome. She became
a friend of Jerome, who was then secretary to
Damasus I. After the deaths of her husband (379) and of her daughter
Blesilla (c. 383 or 384), Paula was stricken with grief, but Jerome, who
received the news in Jerusalem, rebuked her. He wrote that she had the
right to mourn the loss of her husband and daughter; nevertheless, she
ought to realize that they had entered a realm of greater happiness than
this world can offer. To assuage her sorrow, Jerome promised to glorify
Blaesilla by writing about her. At the suggestion of her friend, St.
Marcella, Paula adopted an ascetical way of living, together with
similar groups of Roman noblewomen who resided on the Aventine and
Coelian Hills of Rome. In addition to limiting her food, drink, and
sleep, she gave up her social life and devoted her fortune and the rest
of her life to spiritual development and care for the poor.
Paula's life was such a powerful witness that
she inspired her own daughters, Saints Blaesilla and Eustochium to
sainthood. Paula's second daughter Paulina married a school-friend of
Jerome, but her children were stillborn and she died young - her husband
became a monk. These three daughers were also canonized. (Melania's
houses rivalled those Jerome and Paula founded, but she wouldn't submit
to his direction.)
In 385, she and Eustochium went on a pilgrimage
to Egypt and the Holy Land. They settled permanently in Bethlehem, where
they lived under Jerome's guidance, after 386. The two women built
churches, and established a double monastery and convent with a hospice
(guest house for pilgrims), and served as its first abbess. Paula knew
Greek, and her knowledge, intelligence, and discretion aided her
friendship with Jerome, whom she assisted in his work. When Paula died
penniless and serene on January 24, 404 of natural causes, she was
buried under the Church of the Nativity at Nazareth. Her granddaughter
Paula, who had been placed in her care, succeeded her as directress of
the convent.
Testimony about the life of Saint Paula is
preserved in the epistles of Jerome and in his eulogy to her (Epistle
108).
In art, Saint Paula is a Jeronomite abbess with
a book. Otherwise, she may be shown (1) as a pilgrim, often with Saint
Jerome and her daughter Saint Eustochium; (2) prostrate before the cave
at Bethlehem; (3) embarking in a ship, while a child calls from the
shore; (4) weeping over her children; (5) with the instruments of the
Passion; (6) holding a scroll with Saint Jerome's epistle Cogite me
Paula (Roeder); (7) with a book and a black veil fringed with gold; or
with a sponge in her hand (White).
St. Paula was canonized prior to the
institution of the modern investigations performed by the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints, such beati being canonized by local bishops,
primates, or patriachs, often as a result of popular devotion. Saint
Paula is the patron saint of widows (Delaney, White).
Memorial day: 26 January
Eustochium (c.369 - c. 419)
Born in Rome as the third daughter of
Saint Paula and Roman senator Toxotius, Eustochium (c. 368/90-c.
419) and sister of Saints Blaesilla and Pauline. She had a third sister,
Rufina, and a brother, Toxotius, who was named after their father.
Eustochium made a personal vow of perpetual virginity and was her
mother's companion after the death of her father. She spoke Latin and
Greek and could read Hebrew, and became a spiritual student of
St. Jerome
in 382, then travelled with Paula and Jerome to the Holy Land where she
helped with the Vulgate Bible translation, working as Jerome's
housekeeper, reading and writing for him when his eyesight began to
fail. When Paula died in 404, . Educated in Hebrew and Greek, she helped
him with his Biblical translations and scholarship. He wrote a treatise
on virginity which he sent as a letter to her in 385. Also called
Julia Eustochium or Eustochium Julia, she accompanied Paula
to Bethlehem and when Paula died in 404, took over the monastery,
consisting of three women's communities, that Paula had founded. In 417,
a band of ruffians, possibly a Pelagian mob, burned and pillaged her
monastery. Jerome, Eustochium, and her niece Paula the Younger took
refuge in a defense tower. Although they escaped harm, the incident
broke Eustochium's health. She died at Bethlehem c. 419 of natural
causes.
St. Eustochium was canonized prior to the
institution of the modern investigations performed by the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints, such beati being canonized by local bishops,
primates, or patriachs, often as a result of popular devotion.
Memorial day: 28 September
Additional Information:
-
Ecole Glossary, by Karen Rae Keck -
http://cedar.evansville.edu/~ecoleweb/glossary/eustochium.html (no longer
accessible)
- For All The Saints, by Katherine
Rabenstein - http://users.erols.com/saintpat/ss/0928.htm
- Kirken i Norge
[Norwegian] - http://www.katolsk.no/biografi/eustochi.htm
- Catholic Encyclopedia -
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05629a.htm
- Letter
to Eustochium
Blaesilla (c. 363 - c. 383 or 384)
Memorial Day: 22 January
Blaesilla is the daughter of patrician parents,
Saint Paula
and Roman senator Toxotius, and is the sister of Saints
Eustochium
and Pauline. She had a third sister, Rufina, and a brother, Toxotius, who was
named after their father. A student of Hebrew, she was a friend and spiritual
student of Saint
Jerome. Married in her teens to Furius, son of Titiana, she was
widowed after only seven months. She died in Rome of a fever in c. 383 (or 384).
St. Eustochium was canonized prior to the
institution of the modern investigations performed by the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints, such beati being canonized by local bishops,
primates, or patriachs, often as a result of popular devotion. She is
the patron saint of brides and widows.
Marcella (325 - 410)
Memorial: 31 January
Wealthy Roman noblewoman. Widowed young
after only seven months of marriage. Declined a wedding proposal from
the consul Cerealis. Organized a group of religious women at her mansion
on the Aventine Hill. They were under the spiritual direction of Saint
Jerome, though she was never afraid to stand against him in arguments.
Marcella spent most of her time reading, praying, and visiting the
shrines of martyrs. Captured by the Goths who looted Rome in 410, she
was tortured to give up her treasure, but was released when they
realized she had given away everything to the poor.
Born: 325 at Rome
Died: August 410 at Rome; tortured to death by Goths seeking hidden
wealth
Canonized: Pre-Congregation
Melania the Elder
(c. 341 - c. 410)
Christian religious
leader, religious community founder, suspected heretic
Melania is known as "the
Elder" to distinguish her from her granddaughter who is known as Melania the
Younger.
Melania was born in Spain,
a member of the patrician Antonia family of Rome, Melania (c.
342/343- c. 409/410) was the daughter of a consul and the wife of Valerius
Maximus, a prefect. She married at fourteen, moved with her husband to the
suburbs of Rome. She was widowed at 22: the same illness that took her husband
also took two of her sons in short succession c. 372-373 and left her with one
living son, with whom she moved to Rome.
There, she became a Christian and, when her
son was ten, placed him with a guardian, distributed some of her wealth,
then set off on a pilgrimate to Alexandria where she joined other
Christian desert ascetics. She began to associate with monks of the
Arian party - those who believed that God the Son, Christ, had been
created after God the Father. In Egypt, she met and became the patroness
of Rufinus; she also supported a group of churchmen whom Valens had
persecuted. When the Arians were banished from Egypt, she left with
them.
After some adventures,
Melania came to Jerusalem, where she founded a monastery on the Mount of Olives
where she head a community of 50 nuns. Rufinus, a scholar she'd met in
Alexandria, joined her there. Rufinus was a scholar of the third century
theologian Origen, and Melania also studied the writings of Origen, many of
which Rufinus translated from Greek to Latin. Origen's writings questioned the
doctrine of eternal damnation and doctrines of bodily resurrection. She is said
to have brought back into the church a group of
pneumatomachoi, those who accepted Nicene Christology but denied the
divinity of the Holy Spirit. Melania enjoyed the friendship of Saints
Paula of Bethlehem and Jerome, who were among those
who stayed at the monastery until the rift between Rufinus and Jerome. Melania
failed to heal the breach between the two men. When Origen's teachings were
condemned, Rufinus refused to renounce them, and so Jerome also condemned
Rufinus.
While Melania's
association with Rufinus tarnished her own religious reputation, she was not
herself condemned - but because of her association with heresy, even those
Christian writers who knew of her omitted her from their historical accounts or
the church's history.
Melania founded more
monasteries and promoted theological tolerance and the unity of Christianity.
On a visit to Rome to see her son, she
persuaded her granddaugher, also called Melanie (known as Melania the
Younger) to also take up a religious calling and to go with her to
Palestine. Rufinus, who travelled with them, died en route in
Sicily, and the women travelled via Africa, where Melania the Elder
delivered a letter from her cousin Paulinus of Nola to Augustine. Around
404, Melania the Elder visited Bishop Augustine of Hippo on her return
to Palestine. She died in Jerusalem about 410.
Pope Damasus I
The first pope to call Rome the Apostolic See,
Pope/St. Damasus was born c. 305 in Rome and was exiled with Pope Liberius in
355. When Damasus returned to Rome, he served under antipope Felix II, who had
been elected in place of the exiled Liberius. Damasus was reconsiled with
Liberius in 358. At the time that Damasus was elected pope (366), Ursinus was
elected pope by another faction. Damasus hired people to storm St. Julian's,
where the antipope and his followers were holding court. After a 3-day battle,
Damasus appealed to the prefect of the city who ousted Ursinus, some of whose
followers took refuge in the Liberian basilica. Damasus' attack on the building
left 137 dead. In 371, Damasus was was charged with an unknown offense (probably
adultery) and acquitted when the emperor intervened. Opposed to Arianism,
Damasus was unable to depose the Arian bishop of Milan and did not attend the
Council of Constantinople in 381. St. Jerome was secretary to Damasus, who died
in 384.
Copyright © 1997, Karen Rae Keck
See also:
Sources:
- St. Patrick's Church: Saints of January 26 -
http://users.erols.com/saintpat/ss/0126.htm#paul (Saint Paula)
-
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb28.htm
-
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_melania_elder.htm
-
http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/glossary/melaniaI.html
-
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm8a.htm
- Catholic Online -
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1797
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