Life of St Paula Chapter VI (continued), Book 1d

Not far from there is the little village of Arimathæa, the home of Joseph who buried the Lord (Matthew 27.57), and Nob, formerly the city of the priests, where now their slaughtered bodies still rest (1 Samuel 22.19). Joppa also is quite near here, the port to which Jonah fled (Jonah 1.3), and also (if I may introduce something from the fables of the poets) the place where Andromeda was turned into a rock.
Taking up her journey again, she came to Nicopolis, formerly called Emmaus, where the Lord was known in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24.30). The house of Cleopas there has been dedicated as a church by the Lord. From there she went up to both lower and upper Bethoron (2 Chronicles 8.5), cities founded by Solomon, but later destroyed by several devastating wars; to the right she would have looked out over Ajalon and Gibeon (Joshua 9&10), where Joshua the son of Nun fought against five kings and commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, and where he ordered that the Gibeonites should be hewers of wood and drawers of water as punishment for their treachery. At Gibeon also, now completely ruined, she stayed a while, meditating on the sin of the killing of the concubine, and how she was cut in pieces, and how three hundred men of the tribe of Benjamin were saved (Judges 19&20), thus ensuring that the apostle Paul might be called a Benjamite (Romans 11.1)

.Chapter VII
But let us move on. Leaving on the left the shrine of Helen, queen of the Adiabene, who sent corn to the people in the time of famine, she arrived at Jerusalem, that city of three names: Jebus, Salem and Jerusalem, rebuilt from its dust and ashes by Aelius Hadrianus and renamed Aelia. [Jerusalem was razed to the ground by the Roman army in the year 70, and rebuilt by Aelius Hadrianus in 131.]  The proconsul of Palestine knew her famous family, and ordered his stewards to prepare his residence for her, but she preferred a humble little cell. She went round visiting all the holy places with such zeal and devotion that she could hardly have been persuaded to leave any of them if it had not been for her desire to visit the others. She prostrated herself in front of the cross, and adored it as if she could really see the Lord hanging there. She went into the sepulchre and kissed the stone of the resurrection which the Angel had rolled away from the door of the tomb. And like a thirsty person seeking water, she laid her mouth on the place where the Lord's body had lain. All Jerusalem can testify to the tears she shed there, the sighs she uttered, the grief which consumed her.
Coming out from there she ascended Mount Sion, a name which signifies either "citadel" or "watchtower". David captured this city and built it up (2 Samuel 7-10). Of this city it is written, 'Woe, woe to the city of Ariel (that is, the lion of God), the most strong city, which David besieged' (Isaiah 29.1). And on the subject of its rebuilding, 'Her foundations are upon the holy hills; the Lord has loved the gates of Sion above all the tents of Jacob' (Psalms 87.1-2). Not those gates which we see today reduced to dust and ashes, but the gates against which Hell shall not prevail, and into which enter the hosts of those who believe in Christ (Matthew 16.18). She was shown the pillar, stained with the blood of the Lord, to which he was bound before being whipped. It now supports the doorway of a church. She was shown the place where the holy Spirit came down upon the souls of a hundred and twenty believers (Acts 1.15 & 2.3), fulfilling the prophecy of Joel (Joel 2.28).
As far as her means would allow she distributed money to the poor and her fellow servants, before going on towards Bethlehem. On the right hand side of her route she stopped at Rachel's tomb. Here, as she lay dying, Rachel wished to call her son Benoni, that is, "son of my pain", but his father in a spirit of prophecy called him Benjamin, that is, "son of my right hand" (Genesis 35.18). She went into the Saviour's cave, [Jerome would have been aware of the apocryphal Book of James, dating from at least as early as the second century, in which Joseph leaves Mary in a cave while he goes in search of a midwife] and saw the Virgin's sacred inn and the stable where the ox knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib (Isaiah 1.3), in fulfilment also of the saying of that same prophet, 'Blessed is he who sows upon the waters, where the ox and the ass do tread' (Isaiah 32.20). I have heard her say very emphatically that as she looked on these places with the eye of faith she could see the infant wrapped in rags crying in the manger (Luke 27), the Magi worshipping as the star shone overhead (Matthew 2.11), the virgin carefully nursing the child, the shepherds coming by night to worship the word made flesh (Luke 2.15). Even then those shepherds were declaring the beginning of John's Gospel: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh' (John 1). She also saw the savagery of Herod in the slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2.16), as Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt. Mingling joy with her tears, she proclaimed:

Chapter VIII
"Hail, Bethlehem, 'house of bread', in which was brought forth that bread which came down from heaven (John 6.33). Hail, Ephrata, land of fruitfulness and plenty. Your fruit is the Lord himself. As the prophet Micah said, 'You, O Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, are not the least among the thousands of Judah. For out of you shall come a ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from the beginning, and from everlasting days. Therefore you will give them up until the time when she will bring forth. And when she has brought forth, the remainder of the brethren shall be turned back to the sons of Israel' (Micah 5.2-3). And again, 'In you a ruler has been born, begotten before the daystar' (Psalms 110.3, Vulgate), born of the father before all ages. And the springs of the tribe of David continued in you until the virgin brought forth, and the remnant who believed in Christ turned back to the children of Israel and freely proclaimed, 'It was right to preach the word of God to you first, but since you rejected it and shown yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we have turned to the Gentiles' (Acts 13.46).
"For the Lord has said, 'I am not come except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matthew 15.24). At that time the words of Jacob also were fulfilled, 'A prince shall not be lacking in Judah, nor a leader born of his loins, until he shall come for whom it has been prepared, and he it is for whom the Gentiles wait' (Genesis 40.10). Truly did David swear, truly make a vow: 'I shall not go up into the tabernacle of my house or go into my bed, I shall not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, or rest to the temples of my head, until I search out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob' (Psalms 132.3-5). And immediately with the eyes of prophecy he spoke of the consummation of his desires, foretelling the coming of him whom we believe now to have come: 'Behold we heard of him in Ephrata and found it in the woods' (ibid 6). The Hebrew word, vau, used here, as I learn from your lessons,  [Jerome had taught her Hebrew] does not mean her, that is, Mary the mother of the Lord, but him. Therefore he speaks confidently, 'We shall go up into his tabernacle, we shall worship in the place where his feet have rested' (ibid.7),
"And I, miserable sinner that I am, have been found worthy to kiss the manger in which the infant Lord lay, to pray in the cave where the virgin was in travail and brought forth the Lord. 'Here is my rest, for it is the land of the Lord. Here shall I dwell, for it is the choice of the Saviour (ibid. 14). I have prepared a lamp for my Christ' (ibid 17, Vulgate). 'My soul shall live for him and my seed shall serve him' (Psalms 22.30)."

Chapter IX
At a short distance from here she then went to the tower of Ader, that is, "of the flock", where Jacob pastured his sheep (Genesis 35.21), and the shepherds at night were found worthy to hear 'Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people of good will' (Luke 2.14). As they went about the task of keeping their sheep it was given to them to find the Lamb of God, with the pure white fleece which was filled with the dew of heaven while the earth round about remained dry (Judges 6.38), and whose blood takes away the sin of the world, and stayed the hand of the exterminator in Egypt when smeared on the doorposts (Exodus 12.23).
With eager steps she then set out on the old road which leads to Gaza, where she was able to meditate silently on the power and resources of God, whereby the Ethiopian eunuch, as a forerunner of the people of the Gentiles, changed his allegiance, and from reading the old Testament discovered the wellsprings of the Gospel (Acts 8 27-38). Moving off to the right she came past Bethsur to Escol, which means "cluster of grapes". It was from here that the spies brought back a wonderfully large cluster of grapes as proof of the fertility of the land (Numbers 13.24-26), and as a symbol of him who said, 'I have trodden the winepress alone and there is none with me' (Isaiah 63.3). Not long after this she came to the home of Sarah and saw the birthplace of Isaac and what was left of Abraham's oak, under which he saw the day of Christ and was glad (John 8.56). Going on from there she went to Hebron, formerly Kiriath-arba, or the City of the Four Men, that is, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the great Adam, whom the Hebrews suppose (from the book of Joshua son of Nun) to be buried there (Joshua 14.15). [The Vulgate here has "Adam", which in Hebrew is the same word as "man", which is what AV has in this place]   There are others, however, who think the fourth man to be Caleb, and he is commemorated by a monument at one side.
After seeing these places she was unwilling to go on to Kirjath-Sepher (which means "city of letters") for, despising the letter that kills, she had found the spirit that gives life. She much preferred to admire the upper and lower springs which Othoniel the son of Kenaz the son of Jephona took possession of, to adjoin the southern land with no water (Judges1.13-15). By these means he watered the previously dry fields of the old covenant, typifying the redemption from sin to be found in the waters of Baptism.
Next day soon after sunrise she stood on the brow of Caphar Baruca (which means "house of blessing"), the place where Abraham bargained with the Lord (Genesis 18.23-33). Spread out before her was the desert land which had once been Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, and she beheld the balsam vines of Engeddi and Segor, which is the place of the heifer of three years old (Isaiah 15.5). It was formerly called Baia, which translates into Syrian as Zoar, that is, "little". She called to mind the cave in which Lot found refuge, and with tears in her eyes warned the virgins who were with her against wine which gives rise to lust, from which arose the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19.30-38).

Chapter X
I linger longer in this land of the noonday, where the bride found her bridegroom resting (Song of Songs 1.7), and where Joseph drank with his brothers (Genesis 43.34). [Rosweyde gives this Biblical reference in the margin, but the drinking session in Genesis 43 takes place in Joseph's house in Egypt. Some confusion here on Jerome's part!]   Let us return to Jerusalem by way of Tekoa, the home of Amos (Amos 1.1), and gaze upon the glittering light of the Mount of Olives, where the Saviour ascended to the Father (Acts 1.9). Here each year a red heifer was sacrificed to the Lord and its ashes used to purify the people of Israel. According to Ezekiel it is also where the Cherubim flew up out of the temple and founded the Church of the Lord (Ezekiel 10.18-19). After going in to the tomb of Lazarus she saw the welcoming house of Mary and Martha, and also Bethphage, "the house of the priestly jaws". Here it was that a lusty colt, signifying the Gentiles, accepted the bridle of the Lord, and covered with the garments of the apostle, offered its back for him to sit on.
Taking up her journey she went down to Jericho, turning over in her mind the story of the wounded man in the Gospels, the hardness of heart of the priest and the Levite who passed him by, and the compassion of the Samaritan who put him, half-dead, on his own donkey and carried him off to the safety of the Church. She visited also Adomin, which means "The Place of Blood", so called because of all the blood shed there in the frequent attacks from robbers. She saw also Zachaeus' sycamore tree (Luke 19.2-10), signifying the good work of repentance, whereby he trod underfoot his grievous sins of bloodshed and rapine, and saw the most high Lord from a place on high. And at the side of the road there was the place where the two blind men received their sight (Matthew 20.30-34), foretelling the two peoples who would believe in him.[i.e. Jews and Gentiles]   
Then entering Jericho she saw the city which Hiel founded in his firstborn, Abiram, and whose gates he set up in his younger son, Segub (Joshua 6.26 & 1 Kings 16.34). She looked on the fortresses of Gilgal and the hill of foreskins (Joshua 5.3), and the mystery of the second circumcision (Romans 2.28-29). There also were the twelve stones carried up out of the riverbed of the Jordan (Joshua 4. 3&20), which became symbols of the foundation stones of the twelve apostles (Revelations 21.14). She also saw the spring which had formerly been bitter and tainted, the symbol of the old law, which Elisha had seasoned with his wisdom and made sweet and fruitful (2 Kings 2.21). The night had not quite passed when she approached the Jordan with burning eagerness. At sunrise she reflected on the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and how the priests had walked on dry land in the midst of the raging torrent. (Joshua 3.13-17). She thought also of how Elijah and Elisha commanded the waters to divide in two (2 Kings 2.8) to make a pathway for them, and how the Lord by his Baptism purified the polluted waters of the flood, stained by the death of the whole human race.

Chapter XI
It would be tedious if I were to tell of the valley of Achor, [Nevertheless he is going to, isn't he!] (which means "trouble"), and the 'trouble and crowds' by which theft and avarice were condemned (Joshua 7.11-26), or of Bethel, "the House of God", where Jacob, poor and naked, slept upon the naked earth with a stone for a pillow (Genesis 28.11). That is the stone which is described in Zechariah as having seven eyes (Zechariah 2.9), and in Isaiah as a corner stone (Isaiah 28.16). And this is where Jacob saw a ladder stretching up to heaven, with Lord standing above it, reaching out his hand to those who were going up, while the wicked were falling down to the depths. She venerated also the two sepulchres in Mt Ephraim, directly opposite one another, the one being the tomb of Joshua the son of Nun, and the other of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. The one was in Timnath-Serah, on the north side of the hill of Gaash (Joshua 24.30), and the other in Gabaath which belonged to Phineas, Eleazar's son. She was quite surprised to find that he who had had the responsibility of dividing up the land had chosen for himself a portion which was mountainous and rocky.
What shall I say about Silo, where an overturned altar is still on view today, commemorating how the tribe of Benjamin anticipated the rape of the Sabine women by Romulus of Rome? (Judges 21.21). Passing by Sichem (not Sichar, as many wrongly say), which is now called Neapolis, she entered the church built on the side of Mt Gerizim around the well where the Lord was sitting, feeling hungry and thirsty, and was refreshed by the faith of the Samaritan woman (John 4.5-30). She had rejected five husbands, by whom are represented the five books of Moses, and also the sixth who was not her husband, representing the heretical sect of Dositheos,  [The founder of a Samaritan sect something like the Essenes]   in order to find the true Messiah and true Saviour.
Going on from there she saw the tombs of the twelve patriarchs, and Samaria, which Herod renamed Augusta, or in Greek Sebaste, in honour of Augustus. Here are buried the prophets Elisha and Obadiah, and John the Baptist (than whom there has been none greater born of woman). And here she saw many strange marvels which almost frightened her out of her wits. For she saw demons screaming under various tortures in front of the tombs of the saints, howling like wolves, barking like dogs, roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, bellowing like bulls. They twisted their heads backwards till they touched the ground; there were females hanging upside down with their skirts around their faces. She felt great pity for them all and shed tears over each one, begging Christ to have mercy on them. In spite of her weakness she clambered up the mountain to the two caves where Obadiah the prophet hid a hundred prophets during a time of famine and persecution, and fed them on bread and water (1 Kings 18.4).
Her journey then took her quickly to Nazareth, the home village of the Lord, and Cana and Capharnaum, famous for their miracles. She saw Lake Tiberias, sacred because the Lord sailed over it, and the desert where many thousands of people were fed from a few loaves, and twelve baskets representing the tribes of Israel were filled with the fragments left over (John 6.13). She gazed at Mt Thabor, where the Lord was transfigured (Matthew 17.1-9), and saw Mt Hermon in the distance above the wide plains of Galilee where Sisera and his army were laid low by Barak (Judges 4.16). Here the river Kishon divided the land into two parts. Quite near at hand was the city of Naim, where the widow's son was brought back to life (Luke 7.11-16). I would not have the time, let alone the words, to describe all the places through which this venerable Paula wandered with her incredible faith.

Chapter XII
I will pass on to Egypt, pausing a little on the way between Succoth and the spring of water which Samson obtained from the hollow of the donkey's jawbone (Judges 15.19). Here I shall moisten my dry lips and go on, refreshed, to see Morasthim, formerly the tomb of the prophet Micah and now a church. Leaving aside the Hittites and Gittites, Mareshah, Edom and Lachish, I shall travel into the vast expanses of the desert through shifting sands swallowing up the traveller's tracks, until I arrive at the river Sior (that is, "turbulent") in Egypt, where I shall travel through the five cities where the language of Canaan is spoken (Isaiah 19.18), Goshen and the plains of Taphneus where God did marvellous things, the city of No which afterwards became Alexandria, and Nitria, where the pure nitre of the virtues daily washes away the grime of many.
As she came in sight of it, she was met by the holy and venerable bishop and confessor, Isidore, together with a numberless crowd of monks, among whom were many of both the priestly and Levitical class, [i.e. presbyters and deacons] to whom she gave due respect. She gave glory to God at the sight of them, while confessing that she was quite unworthy of being given such honour. What can I tell you about Macarius, Arsenius and Serapion, [Famous names among the Fathers of the desert]  and all the other pillars of Christ? Was there one of them whose cell she did not visit, or at whose feet she did not worship? She believed that she saw Christ in each one of them, and she rejoiced that whatever gift she was able to give them she was giving to Christ himself.
What marvellous zeal! What endurance, scarcely credible in a woman! Forgetful of her sex and the weakness of her body, she longed to dwell, along with the virgins who were her companions, among these thousands of monks. They all seemed willing to accept her, and perhaps she might have carried this desire into effect, had not the attraction of the holy places been greater. Escaping from the excessive heat she sailed from Pelusium to Maioma with the speed of a bird. Not much later she took up her permanent abode in Bethlehem, and lived for three years in a tiny little house until such time as she was able to build a monastery, and cells, and guesthouses for the many pilgrims who came seeking shelter by the side of the road where Mary and Joseph found no shelter.

Chapter XIII
Having now finished describing the journeys which she made in the company of her daughter and many other virgins, I am free to describe her own special virtues, and in doing so, as God is my judge and witness, I solemnly declare that I will exaggerate nothing, nor pile on excessive praise. I will rather exercise restraint, lest I should be thought to make claims which no one could believe. I will give no occasion to my detractors and backbiters to accuse me of dressing her up in fine feathers like Aesop's crow.
Humility, the greatest of Christian virtues was the one she sought after most eagerly. If you had never seen her before, and you had managed to see her because of her famous name, you would never have believed who she was, but would rather have thought she was the lowest type of servant girl. If you saw her in the midst of her community of virgins, you would think she was the least distinguished in clothing, in speech, in demeanour, in the way she walked.
From the time that her husband died to the day of her death she never took food in the company of any man, even if she knew he were a holy man, not even if he were the most celebrated of bishops. Only if she were dangerously ill would she consent to take a bath. Even when suffering from a severe fever she never slept on a soft mattress for her bed, but rested upon goatskins laid upon the unyielding earth, that is, if you can call it rest, when she practised continuous prayer day and night, in fulfilment of the psalm, 'Every night I wash my bed and pour out my tears upon my resting place' (Psalms 6.6). You would have thought her tears were a sort of fountain; she wept for her trivial sins as if she had been guilty of some terrible crime. We often urged her to have pity on her eyes and use them rather for reading the gospel.
"But it is right for my face to be disfigured," she would reply, "to make up for all the times I painted it with rouge and white lead and antimony. It is right to afflict my body, for it had once been used to enjoying all sorts of pleasant sensations. But now I am making up for my former years of raucous laughter by perpetual weeping, and I have exchanged the softness of linen and expensive silks for the roughness of a hair shirt. Where once I sought how to please my husband and the world, I now desire only to please Christ."

Chapter XIV
It would be superfluous for me to draw attention to her chastity, among such a great list of her virtues, even if I had wanted to, for even when she was still living in the world she was an outstanding example to all the matrons of Rome. She so conducted herself that even the most inveterate of gossips could never find anything evil to say about her. There was no one more kind-hearted than she, no one more easy with the lower classes. She did not court the favour of the powerful, nor yet did she shun those who were proud, or eager to flaunt their own little bit of glory. She gave aid to the poor, she exhorted the rich to give alms. Her liberality was the only extravagant thing about her. She often preferred to take out a loan and pay interest on it, rather than refuse a request for help.

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