Marcella, Saint

MARCELLA, Saint. - Roman noblewoman and widow, disciple of St. Jerome. Born around 335, while still of tender age she met St. Athanasius (339 or 340) and the two monks who had accompanied him to Rome, Ammonius and Isidore. From them M. learned the wondrous tales of the desert, populated by solitaries, and from Athanasius she received as a gift the life of St. Anthony, which he himself had written, while the saint was still living in the Thebaid.

Left a widow after seven months of marriage, she refused to marry the wealthy Cerealis; she created a hermitage in her own palace on the Aventine, and in 374 she was confirmed in her resolve by the monk Peter, who had come from Egypt. Other women of the Roman aristocracy followed M.'s example, forming on the Aventine the first monastery in the broad sense of which there is any record in Rome.

From 382 to 385 St. Jerome became its spiritual director, resolving day by day the difficulties they encountered in reading the sacred texts. To M. Jerome dedicated a book of sixteen epistles (De viris illustribus, CXXXV: Ad Marcellam epistularum liber unus).

After Jerome departed for the East, the community of the Aventine gradually dissolved: M. at first withdrew with Principia to a villa in the suburbs. Between 400 and 403 she worked hard with Pammachius and Oceanus, at the court of Pope Anastasius, for the condemnation of Origen.

In 410 she witnessed the sack of Rome; she was struck by the soldiers of Alaric because they had not found the hoped-for riches: she nevertheless obtained permission to accompany Principia to the basilica of St. Paul, where a few days later she died in her arms. Jerome wove her eulogy in a letter to Principia (Ep. 127: PL 22). The Roman Martyrology commemorates her feast on 31 January.

Emanuele Romanelli