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Biography

Like Marcela (January 31) or Melania (January 26), she was a patrician lady who attended classes on the Holy Scriptures given by Saint Jerome when he lived in Rome. When she was widowed, Lea retired to a Roman monastery of which she became superior. He died at the same time as a certain consul who, apparently, had led a dissolute life and whom Saint Jerome bluntly sent to hell. From his grotto in Bethlehem, he wrote to Marcela the following lines: «Who will praise the blessed Leah enough? She renounced makeup, shiny pearls, and riches of all kinds to cover herself with a simple sackcloth. He stopped commanding to obey, living in a corner with a few belongings, spending nights in constant prayer, hoping to reach heaven as the only reward. From the bosom of Abraham, where he is, he is undoubtedly seeing our consul, shortly before covered in purple and applauded by the plebs in the Capitol, and now dressed in rags and demanding a drop of water without obtaining it. His shameless wife goes around saying that she is in heaven. The truth is that she is crying in the outer darkness, while Leah, who wanted to appear crazy, has been received into the house of God, at the banquet of the Lamb. Ah! I beg you with tears in my eyes: let us renounce everything that is of the flesh and live in detachment, since our body will soon be dust and everything that remains will not last much longer.