THE STORY OF PAULA AND JEROME By M. S Compton, excerpt from the book “Sisters in Wisdom” “I am a stranger with thee and a pilgrim as all my fathers were.” Psalm 39: 14 Paula: Pilgrim and Philanthropist Paula was raised in a world of lavish jewelry, the finest of foods, and chariots carried by eunuchs. Her family was Christian but lived in an aristocracy wherein Christianity was no longer a persecuted religion of the minority. By the middle of the 4 th century the union of the Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity had made an indelible imprint on the culture. After Constantine’s conversion and conquests, Christianity began to draw wealthy, educated, and prestigious forces of society. With the end of persecutions came the development of liturgical forms, a stronger judiciary in the local Churches, and the forging of the first Nicene creed. Patristic literature was at its zenith. While these events were unfolding, however, there was a simultaneous downward movement, at least according to Jerome, who felt that Christianity had lost much of its spiritual strength because of the half-baked and slothful crowds which had begun to enter its ranks. He saw the monastic development in the East as a vital corrective to this, and was influential in introducing it to the West. By the late 4 th century, monasticism had found fertile ground in the Egyptian desert and became well established in a number of the Eastern Churches, e.g., Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem. Although groups of virgins dedicated to God probably lived together in the early house churches, by the 3 rd century virgins increased in number and were the true representatives of contemplative life. Paula was an early saint who embraced the monastic ideal and gave her life to the founding of monasteries based on the desert model. In his letters, in which we learn about Paula, Jerome paints the picture of a woman who almost never ate, rarely slept on a bed, and certainly never bathed. “A clean body signifies a dirty mind” he was fond of saying. (1) This stemmed from Jerome's concern that public baths were places of temptation, and even a bath in the presence of other sisters could be dangerous. In the asceticism which he and Paula discovered in the desert, a rigorously disciplined body was a sign of sanctity and hermetic stability. Becoming a true ascetic meant a transformation, not only of character (soul) but also of nature (body.) As wandering ascetics became collective cennobites, ascetic perfection became collective. The image of the body now affirmed and symbolized the true nature of the Christian community, as it marked a new era in the evolution of the Church. (2) Paula was born into the noblest of Roman families; her father was a senator that traced his ancestry to the great Agamemnon of Greece. She was surrounded by courtyards, gardens, banquets, and slaves; but she chose to give her wealth away and live like a beggar. Her only love, after her conversion, was prayer and Scripture study. Her only desire was to offer her life in total abandonment to the mercy of God. Her only hope was