CHAPTER I.
(347-379.)
Were all the members of my body to change into as many tongues, I could even then say nothing worthy of the virtue and piety of the holy and venerable Paula!’[1] Such were the words and such was the enthusiasm with which St. Jerome that man of genius, who combined so much erudition with such sanctity, and who was for so many years a witness of her daily life begins his biography of St. Paula, at the earnest request of her daughter Eustochium, whose sorrow he thereby hoped to calm; and then placing himself, as it were, with humble respect in the presence of God and of His angels, he continues:
’I take Jesus Christ and His saints to witness, as well as the guardian angel of this incomparable woman, that in what I am about to write I shall simply speak the truth, and my words will be inadequate to do justice to
- ↑ Si cuncta corporis mei membra verterentur in linguas, et omnes artus humana voce resonarent, nihil dignum sanctse ac venerabilis Paulas virtutibus dicerem. S. Hier. Epistola 86, Ad Eustochium Virgincm, Epitaphium Paulee. We shall quote in this book St. Jerome’s Letters from the Benedictine Edition.
