Paula and Jerome: towards a theology of Late Antique pilgrimage

ABSTRACT

This paper examines Jerome’s account of Paula’s pilgrimage in 385. Written by a well-known theologian and writer, the account was intended to be read by the wider Christian world. Self-consciously didactic in nature, Jerome portrays Paula as the ideal pilgrim – ascetic, charitable, and with a strict adherence to the scriptures and Church doctrine, rather than local beliefs and practices. Jerome was cautious of pilgrimage’s potential to foster the movement of heresies and its draw as a touristic, rather than spiritual, practice. Paula’s depiction as the ideal pilgrim reveals the Church’s desire to establish a theology of pilgrimage. Jerome did not wish to encourage the practice, but proposed that if one did embark on pilgrimage, encounters with the sacred were not attainable unless the pilgrim first possessed the ideal ascetic character and motivations. Jerome therefore sought to curate the way Christians both practised pilgrimage and subsequently read sacred landscapes.

KEYWORDS:

• Pilgrimage
• fourth century
• St Jerome
• St Paula
• Eustochium
• Bethlehem
• Jerusalem
• Holy Land

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Rousseau, ‘Christian Asceticism and the Early Monks’, 117.

² Dietz, Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims, 66.

³ Ibid., 69. These codes culminated in the fifth and sixth centuries and, in particular, with the Regula Benedictina.

⁴ Ibid., 70.

⁵ On these debates see: Walker, Holy City, Holy Places?

⁶ Bitton-Ashkelony, Encountering the Sacred, 5.

⁷ For an account and discussion of Poemenia’s pilgrimage see: Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312–460, 76–80.

⁸ Prawer, Christian Attitudes Towards Jerusalem in the Early Middle Ages, 320.

⁹ Rousseau, ‘“Learned Women” and the Development of a Christian Culture in Late Antiquity’. On the educations of these women see: Moretti, ‘Jerome’s Epistolary Portraits of Holy Women’.

¹⁰ Cain, The Letters of Jerome, 41.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² On the controversies surrounding Jerome’s departure from Rome, see: ibid., 99–128.

¹³ Exactly how long after Paula’s death Jerome composed it is uncertain; however, most scholars agree on dates within a year of Paula’s death in 404 (Cain, ‘Jerome’s Epitaphium Paulae’, 107.

¹⁴ Diederich, ‘The Epitaphium Sanctae Paulae’; Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies, 279; Kraemer, ‘Women and Gender’, 469; Weingarten, The Saint’s Saints: Hagiography and Geography in Jerome, 219–69; Cain, ‘Jerome’s Epitaphium Paulae’, 105–8.

¹⁵ Limor, ‘Reading Sacred Space’, 3. On Jerome’s relationships and social circles in Rome see: Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, AD 364–425, 372–4.

¹⁶ Lamprecht, ‘Jerome’s Letter 108 to Eustochium’, 2.

¹⁷ Limor, ‘Reading Sacred Space’, 3.

¹⁸ Falcasantos, ‘Wandering Wombs, Inspired Intellects’, 107.

¹⁹ Limor, ‘Reading Sacred Space’, 8.

²⁰ Ibid., 9.

²¹ Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312–460, 94.

²² Limor, ‘Reading Sacred Space’, 13.

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ On Jerome’s decision to settle in Bethlehem see: Newman, ‘Between Jerusalem and Bethlehem’, 224–7; Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312–460, 173–4.

²⁵ Cain, ‘Jerome’s Epitaphium Paulae’, 120.

²⁶ Weingarten, The Saint’s Saints, 235.

²⁷ Limor, ‘Reading Sacred Space’, 6.

²⁸ Leyerle, ‘Landscape as Cartography in Early Christian Pilgrimage’, 131.

²⁹ Dietz, Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims, 128.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Baedeker, Jerusalem and Its Surroundings, 134.

³² Cited by: Cain, The Letters of Jerome, 18.

³³ Weingarten, The Saint’s Saints, 230.

³⁴ Christian monasteries in Late Antiquity regularly relied on these denotations as a source of income: Avi-Yonah, ‘The Economics of Byzantine Palestine’.

³⁵ Pullan, ‘Intermingled until the End of Time’, 404.

³⁶ On how Paula fulfilled Jerome’s ideal of female chastity and asceticism see: Vidén, ‘St. Jerome on Female Chastity’, 151–2.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giselle Bader

Giselle Bader is a PhD Candidate in Studies of Religion at the University of Sydney. She has a BA (Honours Class I) from the same department and an MSc by Research in the History of Christianity from the University of Edinburgh. Her doctoral research examines pilgrims and travellers to Jerusalem in Late Antiquity.