January 26th. St. Paula.

The Story of St. Paula is closely linked with that of the great Doctor of the Church and Biblical translator St. Jerome, who was to be her spiritual companion. She was born into the top rank of the nobility of Rome in the 4th century and was happily married until she was 32 when she lost her husband and eldest daughter in quick succession. These 'intimations of mortality' caused her to change her life-style to one of intense self-renunciation and generosity to others. Inspired by St. Jerome during his three years of study in Rome, she left the city and with another daughter and various companions travelled to the Holy Land and to the various hermitages of Egypt, before settling in Bethlehem which is where Jerome prayed and worked. Paula established a religious community and pilgrimage hostel and used the residue of her income to help Jerome in his Biblical studies. She died in 404, her qualities extolled in a fine memorial letter by St. Jerome himself.