A letter from Jerome (384)

Translated letter:

1. No one should reprove that we praise or criticize some people in letters, since there is correction for others in showing evils and from preaching about the best the zeal of the good is roused to virtue. Three days ago we said something about Lea of blessed memory. Immediately it pricked my spirit and came to my mind that we should not be silent about a virgin, when we spoke about the second order of chastity [widowhood]. Therefore I must briefly describe the life of our Asella, to whom I ask that you not read this letter — she is distressed by praise — but deign to read it rather to young women so that taking her example as the pattern of the perfect life they can fix their conversion. 2. I pass over that she was blessed in her mother's womb before she was born, that she was committed to her father in sleep [dream] in a vessel of glistening glass purer than any mirror, that still wrapped in the clothes of infancy scarcely ten years old she was consecrated with the honor of future blessedness; this is all from grace, before there was labor, even if god knowing the future santified Jeremiah in the womb and made John exult in his mother's belly, and before the establishment of the world set John apart for the gospel of his son. I come to what after her twelfth year she chose with her own sweat, seized, held, began and fulfilled. 3. Closed in a cell she enjoyed the breadth of paradise in its narrowness. Her place of prayer and of sleep was the ground. She took fasting for her play, abstention for her refreshment, and when not desire but the human condition drew her to food, bread and salt and cold water excited her hunger more than they satisfied it. I have almost forgotten what I should have said in the beginning, when she first made this proposal/vow, she sold without her parents' knowing the gold around her neck, commonly called a "murenula" [little fish] because it is a flexible chain woven with soft metal, and putting on a dark tunic which she could not get from her mother but [bought] by pious negotiation, suddenly consecrated herself to the lord so her whole family would understand that she could not be compelled to anything else, who had already condemned the world in her clothes. 4. But, as we began to say, she held herself always so moderately, and kept herself separate within her cell, never setting foot in public, never conversed with men and, what is even more admirable, loved her virgin sister more than she saw her. She worked with her hands knowing it was written: who does not work does not eat. She spoke to her spouse either in prayer or psalm, hastened to the thresholds of the martyrs unseen and, as she rejoiced in her intention, she vigorously exulted in it, because no one knew. She fasted through the year, two and three days at a time, then in Lent she hoisted the sails of her ship, fasting almost whole weeks with happy face. And, what might be impossible for men to believe but is possible with god's help, when she reached her fiftieth year, she had no stomach pains, she was tormented by no torment of her innards, the dry earth did not destroy her lying members, nor did her skin, roughened by the sack, contract any smell or dirt, but healthy in body, healthier in spirit, she thought solitude a delight and within the turbid city found the monks' desert. 5. You know better, indeed, from whom we have learned what little [we know], whose eyes saw the hardness of camels' knees grow in that holy body through frequent prayer. We describe what we can know. Nothing is more pleasant in severity, more severe in pleasantness, nothing sadder in laughter, gentler in sorrow. There is such pallor in her face that it reveals her abstinence, but no trace of ostentation. She is silent in speech and eloquent in silence, not swift nor slow in her gait, always the same. Cleanliness is neglected, dress untended, but cared for without taking care. By the quality of her life alone she has deserved, in that city of pomp, wantonness, delights, in which it is miserable to be humble, that the good proclaim her, the bad do not dare to defame her, widows and virgins imitate her, married women honor her, guilty women fear her, and priests admire her.

Original letter:

1. Nemo reprehendat, quod in epistulis aliquos aut laudamus aut carpimus, cum et in arguendis malis sit correptio ceterorum et in optimis praedicandis bonorum ad uirtutem studia concitentur. nudius tertius de beatae memoriae Lea aliqua dixeramus: ilico pupugit animum et mihi uenit in mentem non debere nos tacere de uirgine, qui de secundo ordine castitatis locuti sumus. igitur Asellae nostrae uita breuiter explicanda est, cui quaeso ne hanc epistulam legas — grauatur quippe laudibus suis --, sed his potius, quae adulescentulae sunt, legere dignare, ut ad exemplum eius se instituentes conuersationem illitis perfectae uitae normam arbitrentur. 2. Praetermitto, quod in matris utero benedicitur ei, antequam nascatur, quod in fiala nitentis uitri et omni speculo purioris patri uirgo traditur per quietem, quod adhuc infantiae inuoluta pannis, uix annum decimum aetatis excedens honore futurae beatitudinis consecratur; sit gratiae omne, quod ante laborem fuit, licet deus praescius futurorum et Hieremiam sanctificet in utero et Iohannem in aluo matris faciat exultare et Paulum ante constitutionem mundi separet in euangelium filii sui: ad ea uenio, quae post duodecimum annum sudore proprio elegit, arripuit, tenuit, coepit, inpleuit. 3. Unius cellulae clausa angustiis latitudine paradisi fruebatur. idem terrae solum et orationis locus extitit et quietis. ieiunium pro ludo habuit, inediam refectionem; et cum eam non uescendi desiderium, sed humana confectio ad cibum traheret, pane et sale et aqua frigida concitabat magis esuriem, quam restinguebat. et quia paene oblitus sum, quod in principio debui dicere, cum primum hoc propositum arripuit, aurum colli sui, quam murenulam uulgus uocat, quod scilicet metallo in uirgulas lentescente quaedam ordinis flexuosi catena contexitur, absque parentibus uendidit et tunicam fusciorem, quam a matre inpetrare non poterat, pio iuduta negotiationis auspicio se repente domino consecrauit, ut intellegeret uniuersa cognatio non posse ei aliud extorqueri, quae iam saeculum damnasset in uestibus. 4. Sed, ut dicere coeperamus, ita se semper moderate habuit et intra cubiculi sui secreta custodiit, ut numquam pedem proferret in publicum, numquam uiri nosset adloquium et quod magis sit admirandum, sororem uirginem amaret potius, quam uideret. operabatur manibus suis sciens scriptum esse: qui non operatur, nec manducet. sponso aut orans loquebatur aut psallens, ad martyrum limina paene inuisa properabat et, cum gauderet proposito suo. in eo uehementius exultabat, quod se nullus agnosceret. cumque per omnem annum iugi ieiunio pasceretur biduo triduoque sic permanens, tum uero in quadragesima nauigii sui uela tendebat omnes paene ebdomadas uultu laetante coniungens. et, quod inpossibile forsitan hominibus ad credendum deo praestante possibile est, ita ad quioquagenariam peruenit aetatem, ut non doleret stomachus, non uiscerum cruciaretur incuria, non sicca humus iacentia membra confringeret, non sacco asperata cutis fetorem aliquem situmque contraheret. sed sana corpore, animo sanior solitudinem putaret esse delicias et in urbe turbida inueniret heremum monachorum. 5. Et haec quidem tu melius nosti, a qua pauca didicimus et cuius oculis durities de genibus camelorum in illo sancto corpusculo per orandi frequentiam obcaliuisse perspecta est. nos, quod scire possumus, explicamus. nihil illius seueritate iocundius, nihil iocunditate seuerius, nihil risu tristius, nihil tristitia suauius. ita pallor in facie est, ut, cum continentiam indicet, non redoleat ostentationem. sermo silens et silentium loquens, nec citus nec tardus incessus, idem semper habitus, neglecta mundities et inculta ueste cultus ipse sine cultu. sola uitae suae qualitate promeruit, ut in urbe pompae, lasciuiae, deliciarum, in qua humilem esse miseria est, et boni eam praedicent et mali detrahere non audeant, uiduae imitentur et uirgines, maritae colant, noxiae timeant, suspiciant sacerdotes.

Historical context:

Jerome praises Asella, who has been a dedicated virgin in Marcella's household from age twelve, in a work intended for the young virgins in Marcella's circle.

Printed source:

Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, 3 v. (New York: Johnson, 1970, repr. CSEL, 1910-18), ep.24

Date:

384