Saint Paula

Paula of Rome ( born May 5, 347, Rome, † January 26 404 in Bethlehem ) was a Roman Christian, widow and saint of the Catholic Church. She is best known for its friendly connection to the church father Jerome. Her daughters, the consecrated virgin Eustochium and Blaesilla are also revered as sacred.

The Memorial of Saint Paula in the liturgy is the 26th of January.

Life

Paula came from a Roman patrician family. Around the age of fifteen, she was married to Toxotius, a Roman from an influential family. The couple had five children - Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, Rufina and Toxotius - about whose CVs we are taught from letters of Jerome well. 379/380 died Toxotius. Paula then selected the status of the widow, who was highly regarded in the Ancient Church.

In the year 382 a synod held on the occasion of the bishops Epiphanius of Salamis and Paulinus of Antioch to Rome. Epiphanius lived with Paula. The encounter with the two Greek church leaders and especially with the Latins Jerome, Paulinus accompanied - he had gone into the Greek East, and was consecrated in Antioch a priest - Paula deeply impressed and aroused in her the longing for the hermits in the desert and the Holy Land.

In the following years, Jerome, who had remained in Rome gathered a circle of wealthy pious virgins and widows around that want to realize the ascetic ideal, such as the widows Lea, Marcella and Paula with her daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. They immersed themselves in the study of Scripture, and Paula learned Hebrew.

However, Jerome fell into internal church conflicts. Among other things, kept him in the early death of the young Blaesilla. When he therefore left 385 Rome, accompanied him and Paula Eustochium. Together, they made ​​a pilgrimage to biblical sites in Egypt and Palestine, where monastic communities had settled. 386 they settled in Bethlehem and founded a monastery from Paula's assets, three houses for virgins and widows, and a pilgrim hospice.

In his obituary Jerome Paula boasts selflessness, their ascetic way of life, their life of prayer and concern for the poor and sick, for which she used her fortune. When she died in Bethlehem, her saintly reputation was already so far penetrated that several bishops attended her funeral, including Patriarch John of Jerusalem, with which it had previously given dispute over management issues and to Origenism.

The graves Paula, Jerome ' and Eustochiums are located under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Their remains were transferred to the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the 15th century.