Paula was an ascetic Roman matron on her conversion, or else her conversion would then have seemed nominal.  But her nature was not austere.  She was a woman of great humanity, and distinguished for those generous traits which have endeared Augustine to the heart of the world.  Her hospitalities were boundless; her palace was the resort of all who were famous, when they visited the great capital of the empire.  Nor did her asceticism extinguish the natural affections of her heart.  When one of her daughters died, her grief was as immoderate as that of Bernard on the loss of his brother.  The woman was never lost in the saint.  Another interesting circumstance was her enjoyment of cultivated society, and even of those literary treasures which imperishable art had bequeathed.  She spoke the Greek language as an English or Russian nobleman speaks French, as a theological student understands German.  Her companions were gifted and learned women.  Intimately associated with her in Christian labors was Marcella,—­a lady who refused the hand of the reigning Consul, and yet, in spite of her duties as a leader of Christian benevolence, so learned that she could explain intricate passages of the Scriptures; versed equally in Greek and Hebrew; and so revered, that, when Rome was taken by the Goths, her splendid palace on Mount Aventine was left unmolested by the barbaric spoliators.  Paula was also the friend and companion of Albina and Marcellina, sisters of the great Ambrose, whose father was governor of Gaul.  Felicita, Principia, and Feliciana also belonged to her circle,—­all of noble birth and great possessions.  Her own daughter, Blessella, was married to a descendant of Camillus; and even the illustrious Fabiola, whose life is so charmingly portrayed by Cardinal Wiseman, was also a member of this chosen circle.

It was when Rome was the field of her charities and the scene of her virtues, when she equally blazed as a queen of society and a saint of the most self-sacrificing duties, that Paula fell under the influence of Saint Jerome, at that time secretary of Pope Damasus,—­the most austere and the most learned man of Christian antiquity, the great oracle of the Latin Church, sharing with Augustine the reverence bestowed by succeeding ages, whose translation of the Scriptures into Latin has made him an immortal benefactor.  Nor was Jerome a plebeian; he was a man of rank and fortune,—­like the more famous of the Fathers,—­but gave away his possessions to the poor, as did so many others of his day.  Nothing had been spared on his education by his wealthy Illyrian parents.  At eighteen he was sent to Rome to complete his studies.  He became deeply imbued with classic literature, and was more interested in the great authors of Greece and Rome than in the material glories of the empire.  He lived in their ideas so completely, that in after times his acquaintance with even the writings of Cicero was a matter of self-reproach.  Disgusted, however,