From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 26th - St. Paula of Rome, Widow (RM)   
      
   Born in Rome, May 5, 347; died in Bethlehem, Palestine, on January 24, 404.   
   This noble Roman lady of learning and mother of saints, lived Christ's   
   message by being able to truly love that most unlikable crank Saint Jerome.   
   Testimony about the life of Saint Paula is preserved in the epistles of   
   Jerome and in his eulogy to her (Epistle 108).   
      
   Paula was born into a patrician, Christian family. She was a descendent of   
   the Scipios and Gracchi. When she was 15, Paula married the senator Toxotius   
   with whom she had a son and four daughters. Although it was an arranged   
   marriage, it was a happy one. Paula and Toxotius thoroughly enjoyed their   
   wealth and position. The happiness this world offers, however, is ephemeral.   
   Paula learned this lesson when, at age 32 (379 AD), she was widowed.   
      
   She loved her husband and was inconsolable at his loss. She comforted   
   herself with her children (Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, Rufina, and   
   Toxotius). Even that was not enough; she grieved terribly until her friend,   
   Saint Marcella, suggested that she devote herself to God. Finally, Paula   
   took her friend's advice, converted her heart, and dedicated her life to   
   God.   
      
   She gave up earthly treasures and social activities, slept on sackcloth, ate   
   little, and indulged in nothing immoderately. Then she proceeded to   
   consecrate her household to an ascetic way of life together with similar   
   groups of Roman noblewomen, who resided on the Aventine and Coelian Hills of   
   Rome. These ladies encouraged one another to live according to the Gospel,   
   studied the Scriptures together intensely and scientifically to learn the   
   ways of God, and did not wait until disaster forced the ascetic life upon   
   them; they saw that luxury is out of place in a Christian.   
      
   Paula's life was such a powerful witness that she inspired her own   
   daughters, Saints Blaesilla and Eustochium to sainthood. Eustochium was   
   single-hearted for the Lord; she consecrated herself to a life of virginity,   
   having learned austerity from her mother and Saint Marcella.   
      
   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. When Saint Jerome arrived in Rome in 382,   
   Marcella insisted he should teach their group Hebrew and exegesis. Young   
   Jerome was very sarcastic, nevertheless, he became the spiritual director of   
   this evolving Christian community and provided them with instruction in the   
   Scriptures.   
      
   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.   
      
   At first Blaesilla followed in her mother's early elegant footsteps.   
   Blaesilla threw herself so vehemently into the ascetic life that in 384 she   
   died. Paula was almost crazy 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.   
      
   Paula determined to enter a new life. In 385, Paula and her third daughter,   
   Eustochium, abandoned her palace in Rome, intending to become hermits and   
   devote themselves entirely to God. They visited Epiphanius in Cyprus and met   
   Jerome in Antioch. The made a pilgrimage through Palestine and continued   
   into Egypt to visit the monks and hermits there. The following year (386),   
   mother and daughter settled in a mean house in Bethlehem. When Paula first   
   arrived in Bethlehem, she cried, "I greet you, Bethlehem, the 'house of   
   Bread,' for here was born that living Bread who came down from heaven." The   
   Bread of heaven satisfied all her needs.   
      
   Austerity and prayer marked the passing of the years in this convent where   
   every attention was given the poor and the study of the Scriptures. For 20   
   years Saint Paula presided over the sisterhood she founded near Saint   
   Jerome's monastery. Everyone dressed in exactly the same fashion, quite   
   simply, showing that they were all equal in God's sight.   
      
   She learned enough Hebrew to daily recite the Psalms in the original tongue.   
   With her knowledge of Greek, which she had learned from her father, and   
   Hebrew, Paula helped Jerome in his work of translating the Scriptures into   
   Latin, and caring for him personally. She prodded Jerome to take an interest   
   in the dispute over Origen.   
      
   Jerome praises Paula's efficient practicality and tactfulness; but he was   
   alarmed by her excessive, self-imposed mortifications, and warned her that   
   her lavish gifts to charity would land her in difficulties (which they did).   
      
   In the city of our Lord's birth, Paula used her wealth to build a large   
   hospital, a monastery, convent, and churches, before she died penniless and   
   serene at age 56. Her granddaughter Paula, who had been placed in her care,   
   succeeded her as directress of the convent. Saint Paula was buried near the   
   birthplace of her Lord and Savior, under the Church of the Nativity. Her   
   biographer was none other than Saint Jerome (Attwater, Benedictines,   
   Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Gill, Martindale, White).   
      
   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). Saint Paula is the   
   patroness of widows (Delaney, White).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God be blessed; I'll pray for all of you in heaven. What more could I desire   
   than to die for no other crime but that of being a religious and for having   
   made my contribution to the Christian education of children. Dear father and   
   family, I have been judged and condemned to death. I accept the sentence   
   with joy. No charges have been brought against me. I have been condemned to   
   death only because I am a religious. Do not weep for me, I am not worthy of   
   pity. I shall die for God and for my country. Farewell, I shall be waiting   
   for you in heaven.   
   --Saint Jaime Hilario writing to his family immediately after learning of   
   his death sentence   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I   
   also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)