Paula Romana and her daughter Eustoquio (†404)

Biography

She is considered co-patron of the Order of Saint Jerome.

Paula was born in 347 AD. within an illustrious Roman family related to the Cornelia gens. She married Senator Toxocio at the age of 16, with whom she had five children, four girls and one boy.

Until she was 32, she lived surrounded by luxury and comforts. But when her husband died, Paula approached the group of widows guided by Saint Marcela, dedicating herself to prayer and penance with them, and hosting this semi-monastic order in her large Roman house on the Aventine.

It was Marcela who introduced him, in the year 382, ​​to Saint Jerome, who had arrived in Rome with the bishops Epiphanius of Salamis and Paul of Antioch. Paula was deeply impressed and hosted the three pilgrims in her house. Jerome had a great influence on Paula and gave birth to her desire to embrace monastic life in the East.

In September 385, after the death of her daughter Blesilla, Paula decided to leave for the Holy Land, accompanied by her daughter Eustoquio, to continue the monastic life. Jerome, who had left previously, caught up with them in Antioch, and together they completed the pilgrimage to the holy places in Palestine; Then they went to Egypt to follow the lessons of the hermits and the Cenobites, and finally they settled in Bethlehem.

There they founded two monasteries, one male and one female. Every day the nuns sang the entire Psalter, which they had to know by heart. Paula particularly followed fasting and works of charity, donating to the poor whatever was necessary for their subsistence.

Paula and Eustoquio actively collaborated in Jerónimo's preaching, with an increasingly deep fervor, following his spiritual direction. Paula helped Jerónimo calm his irascible temper, and made him have a humble and patient attitude, especially when confronting Origen's followers.

Among Paula's most significant contributions to Jerome's preaching is the translation of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. She herself suggested the need for this translation, and dedicated herself, with her daughter Eustoquio, to copying the work so that it could be disseminated.

In 406, at the age of 59, Paula understands that her death is approaching: she thought she heard the voice of Jesus addressing her with the words of the Song of Songs: “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come. For behold, the winter has passed, it has moved away, the rain is gone; show me your face, make me hear your voice; because your voice is sweet, and your appearance is beautiful.

And she answered him with the words of Psalm 27: «The Lord is my light and my salvation; Who will I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Who should I fear? I must see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living"; and was abandoned in death.

Her funeral was attended not only by the monks and nuns of the two monasteries she founded, but also by many poor people whom she had helped for years and who considered her their mother and benefactor. She was buried in Bethlehem, in the Church of the Nativity. Jerome dedicated the Epitaphium sanctae Paulae to him and when he died, in 419, he was buried near the tomb of Paula and Eustochius.