Paula
Roman widow of senatorial family who left Rome for the Holy Land, founded monasteries for men and women at Bethlehem, learned Hebrew, and worked beside Jerome while he translated the Bible. Jerome wrote her life.
Almost all that is known of Paula comes from the memorial letter that Jerome wrote for her daughter Eustochium in 404. She belonged to a family that claimed descent from the Gracchi and the Scipios, married Toxotius and bore five children (Jerome, Letter 108.1–4). As a widow she left Rome, visited the holy places and settled at Bethlehem, where she founded a monastery for men and three communities of women (Jerome, Letter 108.14, 108.20).
She read the Scriptures with Jerome and learned Hebrew well enough to chant the psalms in it (Jerome, Letter 108.27). Several of the prefaces to his translations are addressed to her and Eustochium (Jerome, Preface to Samuel and Kings) (see Jerome Translates the Latin Vulgate). She died on 26 January 404, aged fifty-six years and eight months, which puts her birth in 347 (Jerome, Letter 108.35).
In the timeline
- c. 382–405, estimated dateJerome Translates the Latin Vulgate
At the request of Pope Damasus, Jerome revises the Latin Gospels against the Greek. At Bethlehem he then translates the Old Testament from Hebrew, book by book, over more than a decade. His version became the common Bible of the Latin West.
Primary sources
Letters
- Jerome, Letter 108.1–4newadvent.org
- Jerome, Letter 108.14, 108.20newadvent.org
- Jerome, Letter 108.27newadvent.org
- Jerome, Letter 108.35newadvent.org