Marcella

CONCERNING ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW OF ROME.

Year 410.

Marcella, Widow of Rome (Saint)

From various sources.

Section I. The Widowhood, Sanctity, and Learning of St. Marcella.

[1] St. Jerome calls Marcella the unique exemplar of widowhood and of Roman sanctity. Thus in the preface to his commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, inscribed to Paula and Eustochium: St. Marcella, exemplar of widowhood, "I beseech you," he says, "both you who are here present, and Marcella, the unique exemplar of widowhood, not to hand over my works readily to slanderers and the envious, nor to give what is holy to dogs and cast pearls before swine." Concerning Paula and Eustochium, see below. Ama and her disciples are said to have been disciples of St. Marcella, below at number 5. The same author, in the preface to his commentary on Daniel, addressed to Pammachius and Marcella: "I beseech you," he says, "most learned Pammachius, and Marcella, the unique exemplar of Roman sanctity, you who are united in faith and blood, to assist my endeavors with your prayers," etc.

[2] Concerning this blood relationship, the same author writes in Epistle 53, to Pammachius: "I recently translated Job into our language, first cousin of St. Pammachius, son-in-law of St. Paula; of which you will be able to borrow a copy from your cousin St. Marcella." St. Pammachius is venerated on August 30. He was the son-in-law of St. Paula, having married her daughter Paulina, as is stated on January 26 in the life of Paula, number 3, although she is called by St. Jerome not only mother-in-law but also mother of Pammachius; for the former is the name of the flesh, the latter of the spirit, as he writes in the preface to Hosea addressed to Pammachius. Whether Marcella was connected by kinship to St. Paula we have not found. On account of the same manner of life, however, she is called her sister in Epistle 74, to Marcella: "Two letters," he says, "which I had sent to your sister Paula and her precious Eustochium, I have appended to this little discourse." By the same reasoning, the same Marcella is called sister either of St. Jerome himself, or of St. Asella, in Epistle 99: "Greet the mother Albina and the sister Marcella." Concerning Albina, the mother of St. Marcella, thus Epistle 74 cited above: "I desire that our common mother Albina be well (I speak of her body, not being unaware that she is well in spirit), and I beg that through you she be greeted, and sustained with the double office of piety, since in one and the same person both a Christian and a mother are loved."

[3] Baronius wrongly supposed (Volume 4, Year 382, Number 38) that this Albina, most eager to learn, was praised by St. Jerome in the preface to the Epistle to the Galatians, since Jerome is speaking there of the daughter Marcella. The very words, which contain an excellent encomium of her, are worth quoting: "Letters have been brought to me from the City," he says, most eager to learn; "reporting that the venerable matron Albina has been restored to the presence of the Lord, and that St. Marcella, deprived of her mother's companionship, now more urgently seeks the solace of you, O Paula and Eustochium. And since this cannot be done at present because of the great distances of seas and lands between us, I would like to heal the wound suddenly inflicted at least with the medicine of the Scriptures. I know her ardor, I know her faith (what a flame she always kept in her breast!) surpassing her sex, forgetting her humanity, and crossing the Red Sea of this world with the timbrel of the divine volumes sounding forth. Indeed, when I was at Rome, she never saw me in such haste that she did not ask something about the Scriptures. Nor, in the Pythagorean manner, did she regard whatever I had answered as correct; nor did authority prevail with her without reason in a prejudged case; but she examined everything, and weighed all things with a sagacious mind, so that I felt that I had not so much a disciple as a judge. Therefore, what I believe will be most pleasing to her in her absence, and useful to you who are present, I undertake the work," etc. These are Jerome's words; and it is clear that he is speaking of St. Marcella there, since Albina was already dead, as Rosweyde also rightly observes in his annotation on the life of St. Marcella, number 10.

[4] Consonant with these are the words he writes to Paula and Eustochium in the preface to the second book of Commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians, which he was about to send to Rome, much taught by St. Jerome through letters; because St. Marcella was earnestly requesting the same thing to be done through letters. "Whenever I recall her studies," he says, "her talent, her labors, I condemn my own slothfulness, who, situated in the solitude of a monastery and looking upon that manger in which the shepherds hastened to adore the wailing infant, cannot do what a noble woman, amid a bustling household and the management of the house, accomplishes in her spare moments." Often appealed to by her, Jerome was accustomed to instruct her on various subjects through letters sent from Palestine: in Epistle 136, among many other things, he explained to her the ten words by which the name of God is expressed among the Hebrews. In Epistle 137, he expounds for her the terms Alleluia, Amen, Maranatha. In Epistle 138, he explains the Greek word Diapsalma. In Epistle 141, he discusses what in Psalm 126 is meant by "the bread of sorrow, the sons of the shaken." In Epistle 149, he sends a treatise on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In Epistle 148, he treats other questions. To the same Marcella he wrote Epistle 15, on the praises of St. Asella the Virgin, who is venerated on December 6; Epistle 24, on the death of St. Lea the widow, whom we will treat on March 22; Epistle 23, on the illness of St. Blaesilla the widow, of whom we treated on January 22. In Epistle 54, he reveals to her the errors of Montanus the Phrygian, the originator of the heresy called Cataphrygian. In Epistle 78, he unravels the deceits of the Origenists. Finally, in Epistle 102, he suggests arguments with which she may silence the mouths of her detractors. St. Marcella had sent small gifts to Jerome, Paula, Eustochium, and the Virgins living there at Jerusalem -- chairs, sacks, candles, chalices, and fly-whisks for driving away flies. Jerome, in Epistle 20, interprets all these things to her allegorically in a holy and witty manner.

[5] Jerome in Epistle 140 proposes the same Marcella as a teacher to the Virgin Principia: "There you have," he says, "in the pursuit of the Scriptures and in the sanctity of mind and body, the teacher of Blessed Principia, not her mother. Marcella and Asella, of whom the one (Marcella) may lead you through green meadows and the various flowers of the divine volumes to him who says in the Canticle: Canticles 2:1 'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valley'; the other (Asella), herself a flower of the Lord, may with you deserve to hear: 'As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.'" ibid. This Principia is called in the same passage, and below at number 15, a daughter in Christ of St. Jerome, who, from his departure from Rome in the year of Christ 386, adhered to St. Marcella even until death; and because she experienced her as a mother in affection, she showed herself a daughter in spirit. Nor was she born of her, as Baronius seems to intimate in Volume 5, Year 410, Numbers 30 and 33, and as is clearly expressed in the index. Surely, at number 13, St. Marcella should not have feared for her youth in the Gothic fury, since she would already have been seventy years old, according to Baronius's own calculation, since he holds that in the year of Christ 340 Marcella, taught the monastic institution by St. Athanasius, began to profess it as a widow, as he writes in the same passage, Volume 3, Numbers 7 and 8. Certainly, while St. Anthony was still living, as is said below at number 5, Marcella learned and imitated his way of life from St. Athanasius.

Section II. Death, Feast Day, Acts.

[6] Marcella was tested by many adversities, as indeed are all who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus. There exists on these matters a letter in Volume 9 of the works of St. Jerome, addressed to Marcella herself that she might bear adversity, elegant and erudite, which however, in the judgment of Marianus Victorius, on account of the variety of style, seems rather to be by Paulinus of Nola than by Jerome. In it the author addresses Marcella thus: "The great charity of Christ has given to our humility a great confidence in writing to your veneration, which has made you humble of heart in piety and rich in works of blessing. For such a reputation has gone forth from the holy riches of your faith that it has reached even us who are stationed far away, and having heard the grace of God, it has, as with the oil of gladness, anointed our bones. Praised by St. Paulinus, For your goodness has been made known to us, because God has made his face to shine upon you. He has set you apart from the womb of your kindred and your land, not in region but in the spirit of good will, so that from your earthly wealth he may establish in you a faithful participant in the heavenly things, of which it is written: 'Wise women have built houses for themselves.' Proverbs 14:1. Hearing these things about your heavenly happiness, we have poured out our hearts before God and in the voice of exultation of one feasting we have said: 'The Lord kills and brings to life, leads down to the grave and brings back.' 1 Samuel 2:6. The Lord makes the rich poor and exalts the humble, because the cup is in the hand of the Lord. Psalm 74:9. Although this may seem to pertain to every mystery of the kingdom, it can nevertheless be referred especially to your grace, who by the great counsel of the merciful Lord were exalted that you might be humbled, and humbled that you might be exalted. For we are not ignorant, venerable sister and blessed daughter, of your former glory in this world. For we also saw you, in that time when royal affinity sought your house, tested by adversity, eminent in those honors which are destroyed; because even though these too are bestowed by the Lord Most High, since all power is from the Lord God, they are nevertheless transient and fragile, being conducted under this world whose form passes like a shadow. Whence we admire all the more the grace given to you, and magnify the Lord in you, who has placed you among the labors of men and visited you with the salutary scourge of paternal kindness, so that, having been afflicted in a few things, He might dispose you well in many." And after much more, he thus concludes: "Rejoice, because you have been made, like the glorious Judith, powerful among the virtues of modesty through the merits of incorrupt widowhood; and like the venerable Anna, persevering in the chastity of fasting, devoting herself to prayer night and day."

[7] When Jerome was composing his commentaries on Ezekiel, by one and the same messenger he received the news that the City had been besieged by Alaric the King and captured, and that the Saints Pammachius and Marcella had departed this life; and therefore he prefaces the following: "I had wished to pass on to Ezekiel and, as the saying goes, to put the finishing hand on the prophetic work. And behold, suddenly the death of Pammachius and Marcella, the siege of the City of Rome, and the falling asleep of many brothers and sisters was announced to me. she died near the end of the year 410. And I was so struck with dismay that day and night I could think of nothing else but the safety of all, and I considered myself a captive in the captivity of the Saints; nor could I open my lips until I should learn something more certain, while anxiously suspended between hope and despair, torturing myself with the misfortunes of others. But after the most brilliant light of all lands was extinguished -- nay, the head of the Roman Empire cut off -- and, to speak more truly, the whole world perished in one city, I was dumb and was humbled and kept silence from good things," etc. Marcellinus writes that the City was captured in the consulship of Varanes, in the year of Christ 410; and on the ninth before the Kalends of September, according to the Historia Miscella, Book 13, Chapter 27, and Baronius in that year, Number 32. After the capture of the City, St. Marcella ended her last day, translated on January 31. whose memory the ecclesiastical tables record on the anniversary day, but not on the day she died, but rather on the day she was given a more fitting burial, that is, when she was translated on the day before the Kalends of February; whereas the feast day of Pammachius, who died at the same time, is observed on the third before the Kalends of September. Those who were therefore united by blood and colleagues in the practice of a holy life (for both had cultivated the monastic discipline) died in this same year.

[8] On the day before the Kalends of February, the German Martyrology published in the year 1573 records the feast of Marcella thus: "Likewise, of the holy widow Marcella, to whom St. Jerome wrote." on which day she was inscribed in the sacred calendars. Galesinnius has more: "On this day also, of St. Marcella the widow, who, despising wealth and spurning nobility, and after the death of her husband refusing a second marriage, so embraced poverty, humility, chastity, the study of sacred letters, constant prayer, and the other exercises of Christian piety that her most holy life was commended by the letters of Blessed Jerome." The German Martyrology published more fully in the year 1599 has nearly the same. The Roman Martyrology: "At Rome, of St. Marcella the widow, whose outstanding praises Blessed Jerome wrote."

[9] The Life of St. Marcella, or epitaph, was written by St. Jerome to the Virgin Principia, Her Life. Epistle 16, which has been reprinted both among his works and separately with the other epistles on numerous occasions, illustrated also with the notes of Marianus Victorius of Rieti and the annotations of Henry Gravius. That she was the first at Rome not to be ashamed to profess the monastic institution, having been taught the discipline of the Egyptian monasteries by St. Athanasius, this her Life is published at the end of Book 1 of the Lives of the Fathers by Rosweyde, with annotations. The same encomium was published in full or at least somewhat abridged by Surius, Haraeus, Lippelous, Ribadeneira, Flamma, Razzius, Gazaeus, and others.

[10] Silvanus Razzius also records the Virgin Principia herself on this day in Volume 1 of women illustrious for sanctity, Is Principia a Saint? and calls her a blessed Virgin of Christ. Anthony Gallonius likewise briefly describes her life in his book on the Roman Virgins and calls her a glorious and blessed Virgin of Christ, though he acknowledges that her feast day is unknown.

LIFE

By St. Jerome, Epistle 16.

Marcella, Widow of Rome (Saint)

BHL Number: 5222

By St. Jerome.

CHAPTER I.

The Lineage, Marriage, and Widowhood of St. Marcella.

[1] Often and earnestly you ask, O Principia, Virgin of Christ, that I recall in writing the memory of the holy woman Marcella, and describe for others to know and imitate the good of which we long enjoyed the benefit. I am grieved enough that you urge on one who runs willingly, and that you think I need entreaties, when I would not yield even to you in love for her; and I receive far more benefit than I bestow The memory of St. Marcella an incentive to progress, by the recollection of such great virtues. For the fact that I was silent until now and let the space of two years pass in silence was not due to any dissembling, as you wrongly suppose, but to an incredible sorrow that so oppressed my spirit that I judged it better to remain silent for the present than to say anything unworthy of her praises. Nor shall I commend your Marcella -- nay, mine, and to speak more truly, ours and that of all the Saints, and the very glory of the City of Rome -- illustrious lineage: in the manner of the rhetoricians, setting forth her illustrious family, the glory of high blood, and a pedigree running through Proconsuls and Praetorian Prefects. I will praise nothing in her but what is her own, and all the more noble because, having despised wealth and nobility, she became nobler through poverty and humility.

[2] Bereft by the death of her father and also deprived of her husband seven months after the wedding, when a Cerealis, whose name is famous among the Consuls, she loses her husband seven months after the wedding: was courting her most eagerly on account of her age, the antiquity of her family, and the outstanding beauty of her person (which is what men are most accustomed to find pleasing), as well as her temperance of character, and the aged man was promising her his wealth, and wished to transfer his estate not as to a wife but as to a daughter; and when her mother Albina was actively seeking such a distinguished protector for the widowed house, she answered: "If I wished to marry, and did not desire to dedicate myself to eternal chastity, she refuses to marry again, even a most illustrious man: I would indeed seek a husband, not an inheritance." And when he replied that old men too can live a long time, and young men can die quickly, she wittily jested: "A young man indeed can die quickly, but an old man cannot live long." By this sentiment he was rejected, and became an example to others so that they would despair of marrying her. We read in the Gospel according to Luke: "And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; and she was of a great age and had lived many days. Luke 2:36 ff. And she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and was a widow of eighty-four years, and she departed not from the temple, serving the Lord with fastings and prayers day and night." Nor is it surprising that she was worthy to see the Savior, whom she sought with such great labor. Let us compare b seven years with seven months; hoping for Christ and holding Him; she is compared to Anna the prophetess. confessing Him at birth and believing in the crucified; not denying the infant and rejoicing in the reigning man. I make no distinction among holy women, as some are foolishly accustomed to do among holy men and Princes of the Churches; but my assertion tends to this, that for those whose labor is one, the reward also should be one.

[3] In a slanderous city, in a city where once the people of the world dwelt and which was the palm of vices, it is difficult, if people would defame even the honorable safe from slanderous tongues, and stain those who are pure and clean, not to contract some rumor of ill report. Whence the Prophet, as though it were a most difficult and almost impossible thing, desires rather than presumes, saying: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." Psalm 118:1. He calls undefiled in the way of this world those whom no breath of disgraceful rumor has stained, who have not received reproach against their neighbors. Of whom the Savior also says in the Gospel: "Be well-disposed toward your adversary, while you are in the way with him." Matthew 5:25. Who ever heard anything about this woman that he could believe was displeasing? Who believed it and did not rather condemn himself of malice and infamy? By her, the pride of the pagans was first confounded, since it was apparent to all what Christian widowhood was, which she professed both in conscience and in dress. she confounds pagan widows For pagan widows are accustomed to paint their faces with rouge and white lead, to gleam in silken garments, to sparkle with gems, to wear gold on their necks, to hang the most precious pearls of the Red Sea from their pierced ears, to be fragrant with c musk, to mourn their husbands in such a way that they secretly rejoice at being freed from their dominion, and to seek others, not to serve them according to God's decree but to rule them. 1 Peter 3:1; Genesis 3:16. Whence they choose poor men, so that they may seem only to bear the name of husbands, who patiently endure rivals; if they murmur, they are promptly cast off. Our widow used garments modesty of dress, that would ward off the cold, not expose her limbs, rejecting gold even to the extent of a signet ring and rather storing it away in the bellies of the poor than in purses. Never without her mother. accompaniment of serious women. She never saw any Cleric or monk (which the needs of a large house sometimes required) without witnesses. She always had in her retinue virgins and widows, and those serious women; knowing that from the wantonness of servants the morals of their mistresses are often judged, and that each person delights in the companionship of those who resemble them.

A Cerealis is also found as the uncle of Valentinian II in Ammianus, Book 30, Chapter 31. "Valentinian the boy, son of the deceased Valentinian, is called to be co-opted into the Empire. When this was confirmed by the unanimous opinion of all, Cerealis his uncle was quickly sent, and carried the same boy placed in a litter to the camp, and on the sixth day after his parent's death, legitimately declared Emperor, he was proclaimed Augustus with the customary solemnity." That this Neratius Cerealis, a man of consular rank, was the suitor of St. Marcella is intimated by the author of the letter to Marcella that she should bear adversity, cited above: "We saw you," he says, "at that time when royal affinity sought your house, eminent in those honors which are destroyed," etc.

CHAPTER II.

The Pursuit of Sacred Scripture and Piety. The Monastic Life.

[4] Her ardor for the divine Scriptures was incredible, and she always sang: "In my heart I have hidden your words, that I may not sin against you." Psalm 118:11. And that other verse about the perfect man: "And his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night." Psalm 1:2. She burns with desire for the sacred Scriptures; Understanding meditation on the law not as a reviewing of what is written, as the Pharisees of the Jews suppose, but as active practice, according to the Apostolic saying: "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 10:31. And the Prophet's words: "From your commandments I have gained understanding," so that when she had fulfilled the commandments, she would then know that she deserved to understand the Scriptures. Psalm 118:104. As we also read elsewhere, that "Jesus began to do and to teach." For even the most outstanding teaching is put to shame when it is reproved by one's own conscience. Acts 1:1. In vain does one's tongue preach poverty and teach almsgiving when one is swollen with the riches of Croesus and, covered with a cheap cloak, fights against the moths of silken garments. Hers were moderate fasts, abstinence from meat, and the smell of wine rather than its taste, on account of her stomach and frequent infirmities. rarely in public, She rarely went out in public, and especially avoided the houses of noble matrons, lest she be compelled to see what she had despised; she celebrated the basilicas of the Apostles and Martyrs with secret prayers, frequenting the Martyrs' shrines: seeking to avoid the crowds of the people; so obedient to her mother that she sometimes did what she did not wish. For since her mother loved her own blood and wished, lacking children and grandchildren, to confer everything upon the children of a brother, Marcella preferred the poor, and yet she could not oppose her mother; yielding jewelry and whatever household goods there were to the rich as things destined to perish, and preferring to lose money rather than to sadden the heart of her parent.

[5] At that time no noble woman at Rome knew the monastic way of life, nor dared, on account of its novelty, to assume a name that was then considered ignominious and base among the people. She, from a the Alexandrian Priests first, and from Pope Athanasius, and afterward b from Peter, who, fleeing the persecution of the Arian heresy, c had taken refuge at Rome as in a most secure harbor of their communion, she is the first at Rome to embrace the monastic life: learned the life of Blessed Anthony, who was still living at that time, and the discipline of the monasteries of d Pachomius in the Thebaid, and of the Virgins and widows. Nor was she ashamed to profess what she knew was pleasing to Christ. Many years later Sophronia and others imitated her, to whom that verse of Ennius may very aptly be applied: e "Would that in the Pelian grove..." She, f the venerable Paula, enjoyed her friendship; in her chamber g Eustochium, the glory of virginity, was nurtured; so that it is easy to estimate what kind of teacher she was, when such were her disciples. Let the unbelieving reader perhaps laugh that I linger over the praises of mere women; but if he recalls the holy women who were companions of the Lord and Savior, who ministered to him from their substance, and the three Marys standing before the cross, and especially Mary Magdalene, who, on account of her assiduity and ardor of faith, h received the name "Turrita" of the Tower, and was the first to deserve to see Christ risen before the Apostles; Matthew 27; John 19 and 20; Mark 16. he will condemn himself rather for pride than us for folly; for we judge virtues not by sex but by spirit, and we reckon it a greater glory to despise nobility and wealth. Whence also Jesus loved John the Evangelist most of all, who because of the nobility of his birth was known to the High Priest and did not fear the plots of the Jews, to such an extent that he introduced Peter into the courtyard, and stood alone of the Apostles before the cross, and received the mother of the Savior into his own home, so that the virgin son might receive as a heritage of the Virgin Lord the virgin mother.

[6] For many years, then, she spent her life in such a way that she saw herself grown old before she remembered having been a young woman, praising that saying of Plato, who said that philosophy is a meditation on death. Whence also our Apostle says: "I die daily for your salvation." And the Lord, according to the ancient manuscripts: "Unless one takes up his cross daily always mindful of death: and follows me, he cannot be my disciple." And long before through the Prophet, the Holy Spirit had said: "For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 1 Corinthians 15:31. And after many ages that maxim: "Remember always the day of death, and you will never sin." Luke 9:23. And the precept of the most eloquent Satirist:

"Live mindful of death; the hour flies; what I say, hence it is." Psalm 43:22.

So, as we had begun to say, she spent her time and lived as though she always believed she was about to die. Ecclesiasticus 7:40. So she put on garments as one mindful of the sepulcher, offering herself as a living, rational sacrifice, pleasing to God. Persius, Satire 5.

[7] At length, when ecclesiastical necessity had drawn me to Rome together with the holy Bishops Paulinus and Epiphanius, St. Jerome consults her about the Scriptures, of whom the one governed the Church of Antioch in Syria and the other that of Salamis in Cyprus, and I was bashfully avoiding the eyes of noble women, she so acted, according to the Apostle, in season and out of season, that her persistence overcame my modesty. 2 Timothy 4:2. And because I was then considered to be of some repute in the study of the Scriptures, she never met me without asking something about the Scriptures; nor would she immediately acquiesce, but would raise counter-questions, not in order to argue, but so that by asking she might learn the solutions to those objections which she understood could be raised. What virtues, what talent, what sanctity, what purity I found in her, I am afraid to say, lest I exceed the bounds of credibility and cause you greater sorrow by recalling what a good you have lost. This alone I will say, that whatever had been gathered in us by long study and explains them to others. and turned almost into nature by prolonged meditation, she tasted, learned, and possessed; so that after our departure, if any dispute arose concerning a testimony of the Scriptures, recourse was had to her as judge. And because she was very prudent and knew what the Philosophers call τὸ πρέπον propriety, that is, that what you do should be fitting, she answered questions in such a way that even what was her own she attributed not to herself but either to me or to anyone else; so that in the very act of teaching, she acknowledged herself a disciple. 1 Timothy 2:12. For she knew the Apostle's saying: "But I do not permit a woman to teach," lest she should seem to do injury to the male sex and sometimes to Priests who inquired about obscure and ambiguous matters.

[8] In our place we soon heard that you had attached yourself to her companionship, and had never departed from her by even a finger's breadth, as the saying goes. You used the same house, the same room, so that it became known to all in the famous city that you had found a mother and she a daughter. A suburban estate served you as a monastery, and the countryside was chosen for solitude; and you lived for such a long time in this manner that from the imitation and conversion of many, What kind of monastery did she establish for herself? we rejoiced that Rome had been made into Jerusalem. Frequent monasteries of Virgins, an innumerable multitude of monks, so that because of the great number of those serving God, what had formerly been a matter of disgrace Many imitate her. had now become a matter of glory. Meanwhile we consoled the absence of one another with mutual greetings, and what we could not render in the flesh, we restored in spirit. Always meeting with letters, surpassing in services, anticipating in salutations. Not much was lost by absence, when it was joined by constant correspondence.

CHAPTER III.

Hatred of Heresy.

[9] In this tranquility and service of the Lord, a a heretical tempest that arose in these provinces disturbed all things, and was stirred up into such a fury that it spared neither itself nor any good person. And as though it were not enough to have stirred up everything here, b it brought a ship laden with blasphemies into the Roman harbor. It immediately found a lid for its pot, and the foulest footprints mingled the purest font of Roman faith with mud. Nor is it strange The errors of Origen are introduced into the City: if in the squares and in the marketplace c a pretend soothsayer strikes the buttocks of fools, and with a twisted club rattles the teeth of biters, when poisoned and filthy doctrine found at Rome those whom it could seduce. Then the d infamous translation of the books Περὶ Ἀρχῶν On First Principles, then the disciple e ὄλβιος blessed and truly worthy of his name, if he had not stumbled upon such a master. Then the contradiction of our writers, and the school of the Pharisees was thrown into confusion. Marcella resists the authors: Then St. Marcella, who had long restrained herself lest she seem to act from rivalry, after she perceived that the faith praised by the Apostle's mouth was being violated in many, and that Priests too and certain monks, and especially men of the world, were being drawn into agreement with it, and that it was deluding the simplicity of the f Bishop, who judged others by his own character, publicly resisted, preferring to please God rather than men. Romans 1.

[10] The Savior praises in the Gospel the steward of iniquity, because although he acted fraudulently against his Master, he at least acted prudently for himself. Luke 16. The heretics, seeing that from a small spark the greatest conflagrations had been kindled, and that the flame long ago set was now reaching the rooftops, and that what had deceived many could no longer be hidden, They depart from the City: sought and obtained ecclesiastical letters, so that as persons in communion with the Church, they would seem to have departed. Not much time passed before a distinguished man g Anastasius succeeded to the pontificate, whom Rome did not deserve to have long, by St. Anastasius, the Roman Pontiff, lest the head of the world be cut off under such a Bishop; nay rather, he was snatched away and taken so that he might not attempt to bend by his prayers the sentence once pronounced, as the Lord says to Jeremiah: "Do not pray for this people, nor intercede for their good; because even if they fast, I will not hear their prayers." Jeremiah 14:11. "And if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them. For with sword and famine and pestilence I will consume them." You may say: "What has this to do with the praises of Marcella?" h This was the beginning of the heretics' condemnation: she brought forward witnesses who had first been instructed by them and then had been seized by heretical error; she showed the multitude of the deceived; she thrust forward the impious volumes Περὶ Ἀρχῶν, the absent are condemned. which were displayed corrected by the hand of the scorpion; the heretics, summoned by frequent letters to defend themselves, did not dare to come; and so great was the power of conscience that i they preferred to be condemned in their absence rather than convicted in their presence. Marcella is the source of this so glorious victory; and you, the head and cause of these good things, know that I speak the truth; you know me to say hardly a few things of many, lest it become tedious to the reader with its hateful repetition, and lest I seem, under the pretext of praising another, to be venting my own displeasure against the malevolent. I shall proceed to the rest.

[11] The storm, passing from the Western parts to the East, threatened great shipwrecks to many. Then was fulfilled: "Do you think the Son of Man, when He comes, will find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. When the charity of many had grown cold, the few who loved the truth of the faith Palestine is agitated by their seditions, joined themselves to our side; whose head was publicly sought, against whom all resources were prepared, so that even Barnabas was led into that dissimulation -- nay, open parricide -- which he committed not in strength but in will. Galatians 2:13. And behold, the entire storm was destroyed by the Lord's wind, and the prophetic oracle was fulfilled: "You will take away their spirit and they will fail and return to their dust; in that day all their thoughts will perish." Psalm 103:29. peace is at last obtained. And that saying of the Gospel: "Fool, this night your soul will be required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?" Psalm 145:4; Luke 12:20.

CHAPTER IV.

Captivity. Death.

[12] While these things are being done at Jerusalem, terrible news comes from the West: a Rome is under siege and the safety of the citizens is being bought with gold, b and the despoiled are again being surrounded, so that after their property they might lose their lives as well. My voice falters, and sobs interrupt my words as I dictate. The City that captured the whole world is captured; nay, it perished by famine before the sword, and scarcely a few who might be captured were found. Rome is captured by the Goths, The c madness of the starving erupted into unspeakable food, and they tore at each other's limbs, while a mother did not spare the nursing infant, and received back into her womb what she had shortly before brought forth. "By night Moab was captured, by night its wall fell." Isaiah 15:1. "O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have made Jerusalem a place for keeping fruit." Psalm 78. "They have laid the bodies of your Saints as food for the birds of the air, the flesh of your Saints for the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them."

"Who could unfold the disaster of that night, who the deaths, Aeneid 2. Or could match the grief with tears? An ancient city falls, long ruling through the years; Many bodies lie scattered helpless through the streets And through the homes, and many an image of death."

[13] The house of Marcella is plundered: Meanwhile, as in such confusion of affairs, the blood-stained conqueror also entered the house of Marcella. Let me be allowed to speak what I have heard, nay rather to narrate what holy men who were present saw, who say that you too were in danger as her companion. With an intrepid countenance she is said to have received those who entered; and when they demanded gold and buried treasures, she excused herself with her poor tunic, but could not convince them of her voluntary poverty. They say that beaten with clubs and scourges she did not feel the torments, she herself is beaten with clubs and scourges: but pleaded with tears, prostrate at their feet, that they should not separate you from her companionship, that youth should not suffer what old age had no reason to fear. Christ softened their cruel hearts, and amid the bloody swords there was a place for pity; and when the barbarians had led both her and you to the d basilica of the Apostle Paul, whether to show you safety or to offer a tomb, she is led to the basilica of St. Paul with Principia: she is said to have burst into such joy that she gave thanks to God that He had preserved you safe for her, that captivity had not made her poor but had found her so; that she was without her daily bread, that, satisfied with Christ, she did not feel hunger, and that she said both in word and deed: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return." Job 1:21. "As it pleased the Lord, so it was done. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

[14] After some days, with a body sound, whole, and vigorous, she fell asleep in the Lord, and left you as heir of her little poverty, she dies. or rather, through you, left the poor as her heirs, closing her eyes in your hands, giving up her spirit amid your kisses, while amid your tears she was smiling, in the consciousness of a good life, and in the rewards of the future.

[15] This I have dictated to you, venerable Marcella, and to you, Principia my daughter, in one brief night's work, not with the elegance of eloquence, Epilogue. but with the will of a most grateful spirit toward you, desiring to please both God and the readers.