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St. Eustochium of Bethlehem
The third daughter of St. Paula, Eustochium (c. 368/90-c. 419) was her
mother's companion after the death of her father. Educated in Hebrew and
Greek, she helped her spiritual director, St. Jerome, with his Biblical
translations and scholarship. He wrote a treatise on virginity which he
sent as a letter to her in 385. Also called Julia Eustochium or Eustochium
Julia, she accompanied Paula to Bethlehem and when Paula died in 404, took
over the monastery Paula had founded. In 417, a band of ruffians, possibly
a Pelagian mob, burned and pillaged her monastery. Jerome, Eustochium, and
her niece Paula the Younger took refuge in a defense tower. Although they
escaped harm, the incident broke Eustochium's health.
Karen Rae Keck
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