St. Paula of Rome

St. Paula of Rome was born in 347 into a noble Roman family. Widowed while still relatively young, she turned from the privileges of aristocratic life to prayer, asceticism and service to the Church. She became part of the circle of devout Roman women who gathered around St. Jerome, studying Scripture and embracing a more radical Christian life.

Paula’s grief after her husband’s death was transformed into spiritual resolve. With her daughter St. Eustochium, she eventually left Rome and traveled to the Holy Land. There she visited the places sanctified by the life of Christ and settled in Bethlehem. Her wealth, once a sign of worldly rank, became an instrument for the Gospel. She founded monasteries for women and men, established a hospice for pilgrims and supported Jerome’s scholarly work.

Her relationship with St. Jerome was one of the important spiritual partnerships of the fourth century. Paula encouraged and assisted the study of Scripture, and her knowledge of biblical languages and sacred places deepened the Christian learning of her community. The Vulgate translation of the Bible belongs to Jerome’s work, but Paula’s patronage, sacrifice and intellectual seriousness formed part of the environment that made it possible.

She lived austerely, sometimes to the concern of those around her, and gave generously to the poor. Her final years in Bethlehem were marked by prayer, charity and the burdens of monastic leadership. She died in 404, mourned by Jerome, who wrote movingly of her virtues.

Paula is honored as a widow, ascetic, foundress and lover of Scripture. Her life shows how wealth and education can be converted into pilgrimage, hospitality, study and the service of the Word of God.

Her daughter Eustochium shared the Bethlehem life, and their community became closely tied to Jerome’s translation and study of Scripture. Paula’s pilgrimage through the Holy Land before settling in Bethlehem also formed her spirituality; she prayed where Christ had been born, suffered, died and risen.