Jerome, in his Letter 108, describes how Paula at the beginning of her pilgrimage, in 385, visited the cells of Flavia *Domitilla (persecuted noblewoman of Rome, late 1st c., S02419) on Ponza (southern Italy). Written in Latin in Bethlehem (Palestine), 404.
Evidence ID
E06524
Type of Evidence
Literary - Letters
Major author/Major anonymous work
Jerome of Stridon
Jerome of Stridon, Letter 108.7 ('Epitaphium Sanctae Paulae')
Delata ad insulam Pontias, quam clarissimae memoriae quondam feminarum sub Domitiano principe pro confessione nominis Christiani Flauiae Domitillae nobilitauit exilium, uidensque cellulas, in quibus illa longum martyrium duxerat, sumptis alis Hierosolymam, sancta loca uidere cupiebat.
'She was ferried to the island of Ponza, which Flavia Domitilla, one of the women of senatorial rank who lived during Domitian's reign, ennobled by being exiled there for professing the Christian faith. After visiting the cells in which this woman had lived out her prolonged martyrdom, Paula sprouted wings and longed to set eyes on Jerusalem and the Holy Places.'
Text: Hilberg 1996 (1912).
Translation: Cain 2013.
Cult Places
Cult building - monastic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Source
In the second half of 404 Jerome composed an Epitaph for his late friend and patron, Paula, which was transmitted to us as letter 108. The work depicts Paula as an example for ascetic women and bears features of hagiography.Paula died on 26 January 404 in Bethlehem. She was the descendant of a Roman aristocratic family, who traced their lineage back to the Gracchi and Scipiones. She was dedicated to the western ascetic movement and had spent more than twenty years by the side of Jerome of Stridon, whom she had followed with her daughter Eustochium to the Holy Land in 385, where they founded a monastery and a convent in Bethlehem. Paula was not only Jerome's most faithful companion, but also his biggest sponsor.
Jerome's Letter 108.8-13 describes Paula's pilgrimage through the Holy Land, which lasted from late winter 385 to late spring 386.
Discussion
At the beginning of her pilgrimage in 385 Paula visited the cells of Flavia Domitilla on Ponza.Domitilla's exile to Ponza in AD 96, perhaps because she refused to participate in the cult of the emperor, is well documented in classical sources, and is mentioned by Eusebius (Church History 3.18), who explicitly attributed her exile to her Christianity. Discrepancies in the sources have led to some discussion about her precise identity: she was either the wife, or the niece, of the consul Flavius Clemens and related to the emperor Domitian.
Jerome's account of Paula's visit to Domitilla's cell on Ponza is the first indication we have that she was attracting cult, with Jerome portraying her as an ascetic who had lived out a 'long martyrdom' of asceticism.
In the Martyrdom of *Nereus, Achilleus and Companions (E02033), she becomes a full blood-martyr. She is presented here as the mistress of the two eunuch slaves (who share her exile on Ponza), and as eventually eventually suffering a martyr's death at Terracina.
Bibliography
Edition:Hilberg, I., Hieronymus, Epistulae 71-120 (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 55; Vienna, 1996).
Translation and commentary:
Cain, A., Jerome's Epitaph on Paula: A Commentary on the Epitaphium Sanctae Paulae (Oxford, 2013).
Further reading:
Cappelletti, S., The Jewish Community of Rome from the Second Century BC to the Third Century CE (Leiden, 2006), p. 132.
Keresztes, P., "The Jews, the Christians, and Emperor Domitian," Vigiliae Christianae 27 (1973), 1-28.
Lampe, P., Die stadtrömischen Christen in den ersten beiden Jahrhunderten (Tübingen, 1989), pp. 166-72.
Record Created By
Philip Polcar
Date of Entry
12/09/2018; discussion expanded 11/03/2024.
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02419 | Domitilla, persecuted noblewoman of Rome, late 1st c. | Flavia Domitilla | Certain |
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