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Letter 22 to Eustochium

Saint Jerome (347 - 420)
Translated by William Henry Fremantle (1831 - 1916)

St. Jerome's most famous letter (Libellus de virginitate servanda), written to St. Eustochium, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Roman widow St. Paula. St. Jerome exhorts St. Eustochium to embrace virginity and teaches her the proper conduct of a young woman. It contains his:
1. view that God, though omnipotent, cannot restore a fallen virgin (§5)
2. vivid description of fasting and temptation (§7)
3. view of abortion, that it is murder (§13)
4. term superbiam sanctam, virginity a "holy pride" (§16)
5. praise of wedlock, that it gives him virgins (§20)
6. further reading recommendations on virginity (§22)
7. "Do you read? He [God] speaks to you." (§25)
8. dream where the Judge condemns him a Ciceronian, not a Christian (§30)
9. description of the three types of monasticism (§§34-36)
- Summary by Geremia

Genre(s): Christianity - Other

Language: English