St. Paula of Rome

Today, we have a guest post from my friend, Alex. Alex is going to share a little bit about St. Paula!

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At the beginning of this year, at the advice of an amazing Catholic blog http://www.conversiondiary.com/2013/01/a-saint-for-the-year.html

and utilizing a Saint Name Generator from another blog http://jenniferfulwiler.com/saints/#.USwTh4511As

I decided to take on a patron saint for myself for the year 2013. This saint would be my partner in prayer, would intercede for me, and as they grew to know me spiritually, I would take the time to know them - to understand fully God's purpose for putting that name before me.

That saint is Saint Norma NO, Saint Paula. 

Saint Paula and I did not get off to a good start, which may be a lesson in and of itself. For the first few times in prayer, I kept accidentally referring to her as Saint Norma. 

Where did Norma come from? It's the name of a parishioner from my parish and it ends in an A, and Paula ends in an A, so naturally, I completely found a way to mess things up with St Paula right away. 

It's hard to remember someone's name, and it's even harder when you don't have a face to put to it.

Saint Paula, who I sometimes call Saint Norma, was an early Christian saint, and a Roman, which is awesome because the Romans are some of the earliest ancestors of our faith. The Romans completely acted counter-culturally to their country and made their faith their true citizenship. We could learn a lot from them.

Saint Paula was from a wealthy family. She married a rich senator guy named Toxotius and had 5 children - 4 of them daughters, Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina. And then a boy named Toxotius. 

Also, I love Roman names so naturally, I'm going to probably name my first child Eustochium.

Anyway, after becoming a widow at 32 years old, Paula still played an active role in her children's lives - marrying them off to various rich people and pagans who became Christians later on, and loving them as any mother should. She experienced an increased interest in her faith. Her love for her children consumed her to the degree that she didn't desire another husband; she only desired to grow further in love with her eternal spouse: Christ. 

She met her saintly friend, St. Marcella, and became the epitome of a Christian widow fully alive in Christ. After meeting St. Marcella, she met St. Jerome in 382, and became extremely drawn to monastic life. St. Jerome and St. Paula became close friends and ultimately, St. Paula became St. Jerome's number one. She helped him keep his affairs in order and assisted him in compiling his books. When Jerome translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, Paula helped him. She was fluent in Hebrew so she edited his works.

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I HAVE TO POINT OUT that this was one of the most amazing revelations I had about having St. Paula/Norma chosen as my saint for this year. I just graduated in August, and had been looking for a job doing what I love, doing what I studied to do: editing. I had never seen a patron saint of editors, or heard of any female saint that did editing, and here I was presented with probably the first female editor saint in the Church.

Also, very soon after having Paula assigned as my saint, I was BLESSED with an editing job that I love. Not only that, but the person who provided me with the means of obtaining this job is married to Norma the parishioner, which may explain why I keep confusing Paula and Norma. Both played an important role in bringing about my employment which was absolutely necessary for my livelihood. The fruits of my labor have allowed me to serve the Church in an even greater way than before. Back to Paula…

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St. Jerome and St. Paula were so close that their friendship became surrounded by scandal. They appeared to be far too intimate to just be friends. That's the kind of guy St. Jerome was. He was friends with lots of men and lots of women. But they did not let this sour their friendship. They organized monastic groups for men and women in the desert and pursued lives of poverty, virtue, and prayer. Being rich, St. Paula became very free with giving things away. In fact, she donated herself into financial ruin. She was completely impoverished when she died, but she left behind the legacy of their desert monastic groups, as well as her children and even grandchildren that in their marriages and celibate lives pursued religious virtue. They did this because of the example St. Paula set for them.

St. Paula was intelligent, charitable, a loving and devoted mother and wife, a cherished friend, a leader and a servant, and utterly devoted to Christ. She gave up a comfortable life to save her soul. She acted against the conventions of her time in order to pursue holy friendships with women and men. She saw beyond the fabric of this life into the depth of an eternity with Christ. And I'm absolutely honored to be served in prayer by such a saint.

This Lent, consider the people of the early church like St. Paula who quite literally gave up a home and all their belongings simply to pursue holiness. Look around your room and ask if you would do the same. What stops us from making such a bold move when so many before us did and reaped such glory from it? St. Paula went from wearing silks to wearing rags. Imagine taking that shopping money and mailing it off to a charity, or to a struggling Catholic radio station, or a pregnancy clinic.

We ask St. Paula to pray for us that we may desire to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of love for Christ.