Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1893-09-07


Ets luxury and vices, Imperial Rome
saw not the CLEAN OF their spears.
Christian women, Tapped in pagan
zplendors. were fast losing sight Of
their high privileges when the noble
Aarcella, in her palace on Mount
Asentine, grouped around her the
most learned OF the Christian danes
! Of the city, and commenced her
x1rk II reform. These were not
uosnesl merely heund together by
~ nietT ead rafe <<;ss -, Or
no6le birth and highly gssesa. they
formed school or Christian phil
osophy as well as community ded-
| icated to the Most High.
Literature, it has been said. is but
the expression of society. This was
the age of fierce polemics, aud pro-
found study of the Scriptures was
the one that absorbed the learned
doctors of the Church and their dis
ciples. Many women who had
played and were still to play prom
inent part in spreading the Gospel
became earnest students, and the
school for the study of Holy Writ
established on Mt. Aventiue became
the nucleus of those seats of learn
ing that have given to the world so
many geniuses in all branches of
science. 1t is from the letters of
st. Jerome, who was induced after
much persuasion to give lectures to
Marcella and her pupils, that we
are indebted for an account of these
brilliant women, whose talents
tighten mp this dark period of wo-
mans intellectual history. Mar
celia had for her early tutors the
priests of Alexandria: AMI thorough
ly conversant with the profane liter
ature of the Greece and of Rome,
she devoted her attention to pro-
found studies of the Bible. Not
content with the explanation of the
holy books given by st. jerome dur
ing his public lectures in her school,
she Tur9itted to him in writing her
ssfrS:s p''sa tassc drew lorpn in
answer several of the saints most
learned commentaries, and we learn
from his letter to Principia that
after he, the great authority on
Biblical lore, left Rome. it was
Marcella that the scholars of the
city consulted upon the obscure pas
sages of the Bible. The vanity of
man appears in those days to have
been is easily alarmed as it is now,
and we cannot refrain smile IS st.
Jerome praises the rare tact she dis
played in answering these masculine
seekers of knowledge at her shrine.
'.While she taught she feigued to
be pupil, and was most careful
not TO appear to know more than
man "a trait of character that
shows Marceila was also n student
Of human nature. Never has there
been a more beautiful tribute in any
language paid to the genius of wo-
man than that from the pen of St.
Jerome, when in letter to Paula,
speaking of Marcella, he says: "Su-
perare sexum, obliyisci homenis,
ct voluminum diviuorem tympano
concropante Rubrnm hujes sac
culi pelagus transfretare'-"Sd-
perior to her sex, forgetting she is
woman, the tympanum of Holy
Scriptures in her hand. she has
crossed the Red Sea of the century,"
and he adds, when ! was at lone
she never saw me that she did not
question me on the Scriptures, and
contrary to the custom of the Py-
thagorians, she did not accept as
infallible all | said. She examined
everything, debated with wisdom,
and | felt / had in her less of a dis
ciple than a judge" Unfortunate
ly there exist no letters OF this re-
markable woman, whose genius,
dropping its plummet down the ages
of civilization yet to come, sounded
their depths, and seeing the vital
necessity for a complete translation
of the Scriptures, never ceased to
urge upon the illustrious Cenobite
the undertaking of such task.
IL we owe to Marcella the incep-
ton of this great work, it is to
Paula we must render thanks for
its correctness and completeness.
The most illustrious of the cultured
women who had left the downy
couch and .perfumed bath to follow
Marcella in her pilgrimage across