ST. MARCELLA
oonyentionalities of the day. Tho law passed about this date, placing conse- crated widows on the same footing as virgins, is supposed to have been made in the interests of Marcella, to protect her from the insistence of Cerealis. She sacrificed part of her fortune to obtain tolerance from those on whom, failing her, devolved the duty of keeping up the fiamilj name. She ceased to follow the fashion in dress, rebelling against the immense weight of splendid cloth- ing, the hours of painting and curling before the mirror ; she was the first widow among the great ladies of Home to assume the coarse brown dress that marked her as consecrated to a religious and self-denying life. At first the gossips slandered her, seeking and in- venting bad motives for her singularity. She disregarded these insinuations, liv- ing a studious, charitable and devout life with her mother, in a palace on Mount Aventine, supposed to have stood close to the site of the present church of St. Sabina. Here she gradually attracted round her a society of women who as- pired to a better life and more interest- ing thoughts and occupations than the frivolous, gay world afforded. Some of these ladies were still members of the world of fashion and dressed as such. Some were wives of pagans, some were young widows, who would marry again. Most of them were women of high station and great influence, and many were of considerable ability and culture. This circle soon became a power in Home. It has been called" The Firsts Convent," but its members were bound by no rule ; they came and went, and were under no obligation to continue their meetings. It was in 382 that St. Jerome was summoned to Home by Pope Damasus, and was assigned as a guest to the hos- pitality of Marcella. He calls her house the domestic church." He remained there three years, working at his transla- tion of the Bible, instructing his hostess and her friends, and profiting by their criticism. Like all well-educated per- sons of the time, they had some know- ledge of Greek and some learnt Hebrew that they might follow and assist the work of translation. It was here that he first met Paula (13) and Eustochiuh, who became his life -long friends. Fabiola, Blaesilla, Paulina were also of the party, and so were many others wliom his pen has made famous. He testifies to the scholarship and earnest- ness of Marcella. She often tried to restrain him from quarrelling or to moderate the violence of his retaliations on his opponents. He attributes the condemnation of Origen's doctrines, by Pope Anastasius, to Marcella's influence, and calls this decision a *' glorious victory.*' When Paula and Eustochium had left Home and settled in the Holy Land they wrote to Marcella begging her to join them, and dwelling on the delight of visiting the scenes of our Lord's life on earth, and of other events in scripture history. This letter has been repro- duced in English by the Palestine Pil- grims* Text Society. Marcella, however, remained in Home. She must have been nearly eighty in the disastrous year 410. She had outlived most of the friends of her youth and had removed from the palace on the Avon- tine to a smaller house, accompanied by Pbincipia (1), a young girl she had brought up and whom she loved as a daughter. There were signs that the house belonged to a wealthy family, and when the Goths took the city, the soldiers, bent on pillage, would not believe that Marcella had not a store of money and jewels concealed ; they knew nothing of the lavish charity which had dispersed the family treasures. To in- duce her to give up that which she had not, they beat, tortured, insulted the aged lady ; they threatened violence to Principia ; but Marcella succeeded in defending her until another group of soldiers arrived, having some reverence for holy things. They escorted the two women to the church of St. Paul, — one of those which had been named by Alaric as a sanctuary for all who chose to take advantage of it. Here the venerable Marcella, exhausted with her fatigues and wounds, died the next day. Eleven of St. Jerome's letters are addressed to her and she is mentioned in many of his other writings.
