LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE FOR A FRIEND - SAINTS JEROME, PAULA AND EUSTOCHIUM
by Kristen West McGuire
The young widow Paula and her daughter Julia Eustochium and a company of ascetic virgins abruptly left Rome in 385. Their friend Jerome quit the city a month previous, and discreetly awaited them in Cyprus. The gossips in Rome were correct; the group was headed to Palestine, together. They eventually settled in Bethlehem, and established two monasteries, including a scriptorium for Jerome’s intellectual work, and schools for both the monks and the nuns.
The tongues wagged for a reason. Jerome’s tactlessness alienated many matrons in the city after his arrival in 381 to serve as a scribe for Pope Damasus. He quickly made a name for himself, and the pope weighted his service highly as an ascetic and a scripture expert. His extensive travels and experience as a hermit in the wilds near Antioch further added to his exotic cache. He was of an age to be noticed, at the top of his game.
Paula was descended from prominent Roman families, and had lost her husband in 379 at the young age of 32. She begged Jerome to teach the scriptures at her home, where like-minded virgins gathered to support one another in a sacrificial lifestyle.
Patient and detail-oriented, Paula mastered Hebrew so well that she could chant the Psalms in Hebrew without a Latin accent. But her accomplishments merely egged on their detractors: an old man tutoring young virgins, wasting his time on women, “studying the scriptures.”
Jerome appreciated Paula’s zeal and spiritual insights on the scriptures, while she revered his accomplishments as a scholar. They were indeed soul-mates, though not in the way that lascivious Roman minds thought.
Jerome’s true passion was scholarship, and notwithstanding his devotion to ascetical practices, his sanctity developed from his studies. During his travels throughout the empire, Jerome listened and studied the languages and dialects, and made friends with native speakers. When he finally settled in Bethlehem, he was prepared to begin his life’s achievement, the translation of the original Hebrew Bible into Latin to produce the Vulgate Bible.
Although Paula handled most of the logistical details of building the monasteries, Jerome did teach the monks and nuns to read the Scriptures, and even taught young boys the classical Latin texts, work that he found most satisfying. Paula didn’t do all of his copywork; he received stipends for copyists from benefactors.
Paula’s provided a safe house for Jerome. She lived the ideals he so zealously promoted throughout his career. In return, he provided an outlet for her intellect and wealth. In keeping with their spiritual friendship, he curbed some of her more excessive penances. It is doubtful that he would have finished his translation of the Vulgate without her stabilizing influence.
Jerome stopped writing for several months after her death in 404 at the age of 56. He was simply speechless. Eventually, with Eustochium taking the reins of the monastic leadership, he finished the last few books of his Vulgate translation. When Eustochium also died in 418, Jerome was again completely undone. His grief drips from the words of his letters, until his own death two years later.
Did Jerome merely use Paula and Eustochium to further his own intellectual accomplishments? Or did he honor their sacrifices by serving the Church with a Vulgate translation and treatises on monasticism that presaged the work of Benedict? We won’t know about the fairness factor this side of the veil. However, we do have the record of a doctor of the Church taunting his male detractors with the fact that Paula and Eustochium were better Hebrew scholars than most men of his acquaintance.
Who’s zoomin’ who? Is it oppression to provide a place for souls to rest, or to spend a lifetime helping another gifted man to achieve brilliant successes? Edith Stein says, “...whoever makes her will captive to God in this way can be certain of a special guidance in grace.” (Essays on Woman, p. 124) Heroic sanctity attracted many followers to their desert abode, proof of such guidance.
Although the Church celebrates only Jerome’s contribution to biblical scholarship, I fully expect the Bibles in heaven to bear the following inscription: to the saints Paula and Eustochium, who birthed the Vulgate.
