Noble dame romaine, née peu avant 330, qui, la première, n'hésita pas à faire publiquement et "ouvertement profession de dévotion". Son palais sur la colline de l'Aventin fut bientôt le centre de toutes celles qui, autour de saint Jérôme (qu’elle rencontre vers 382, lors de son séjour à Rome), voulaient suivre les conseils évangéliques, secourant les pauvres, visitant les malades, adoucissant le sort des esclaves. Lorsqu'en 410, les barbares d'Alaric s'approchèrent de Rome, ses amies s'enfuirent pour aller rejoindre saint Jérôme en Palestine. Trop âgée, elle avait quatre-vingt-cinq ans, elle resta à Rome et les soldats goths la battirent durement pour lui faire avouer où étaient ses richesses. Elle n'en avait plus, les ayant données aux pauvres. Elle mourut quelques jours plus tard de ses blessures, au début de l’an 411.
Sainte Marcella
Moniale à Rome, disciple de Saint Jérôme (+ 410)
Noble dame romaine qui, la première, n'hésita pas à faire publiquement et "ouvertement profession de dévotion" (O. Englebert). Belle, riche, cultivée et raffinée, personne n'osait se moquer d'elle. Son palais sur la colline de l'Aventin fut bientôt le centre de toutes celles qui, autour de saint Jérôme,voulaient suivre les conseils évangéliques, secourant les pauvres, visitant les malades, adoucissant le sort des esclaves. Lorsqu'en 410, les barbares d'Alaric s'approchèrent de Rome, ses amies s'enfuirent pour aller rejoindre saint Jérôme en Palestine. Trop âgée, elle avait quatre-vingt-cinq ans, elle resta à Rome et les soldats goths la battirent durement pour lui faire avouer où étaient ses richesses. Elle n'en avait plus, les ayant données aux pauvres. Elle mourut quelques jours plus tard de ses blessures. Les synaxaires des Églises d'Orient la commémorent également.
À Rome, commémoraison de sainte Marcelle, veuve, en 410. Comme l’écrit saint Jérôme, elle méprisa richesses et noblesse et se rendit plus noble par sa pauvreté et son humilité.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/535/Sainte-Marcella.html
Sainte Marcelle modèle des veuves
Sainte Marcelle, noble romaine, était d’une illustre race qui avait donné à la république des sénateurs, des proconsuls et des préfets. Dans sa première jeunesse et pour obéir aux ordres de sa mère, elle épousa un praticien, digne en tout point d’obtenir sa main, mais qui mourut après sept mois de mariage.
L’âge de la jeune veuve, l’illustration et l’antiquité de sa famille et surtout sa remarquable beauté, jointe à une pureté de mœurs et à une régularité de vie parfaites, lui attirèrent de nombreux prétendants. L’un d’eux, le consul Céréalis, nourrissait le plus d’espoir. Pour faire oublier ses cheveux blancs, il promettait à Marcelle de la rendre héritière de ses immenses richesses. Albina, mère de la jeune fille, souhaitait vivement procurer à sa maison l’appui d’un homme si puissant : « Je suis bien âgé, dit un jour Céréalis, à la jeune veuve, je veux vous traiter en fille chérie plutôt qu’en épouse. Venez vivre avec moi et je vous laisserai la succession de tous mes biens.
- Si je n’avais point résolu de pratiquer la chasteté chrétienne, et si je voulais me marier, repartit Marcelle, je chercherais un mari, non un héritage. »
Piqué au vif le consul répondit : « Rappelez-vous qu’un vieillard peut vivre longtemps, tandis qu’un jeune homme peut mourir à la fleur de l’âge. » Marcelle supporta patiemment cette allusion à la mort prématurée de son époux, et répliqua avec une douce ironie : « Il est vrai qu’un jeune homme peut rencontrer la mort au début de la vie, mais il est aussi certain qu’un vieillard ne saurait tarder à être frappé par elle. » L’exemple de Céréalis ainsi éconduit désespéra tous les prétendants, et Marcelle put librement se consacrer à Dieu dans l’état de viduité.
La société de Rome était alors composée, en grande partie, de ce qu’il y avait de plus corrompu dans toutes les nations du monde. Et il était presque impossible à une vierge, à une veuve, de ne pas voir attaquer sa réputation. Jamais cependant ces hommes, qui prenaient plaisirs à noircir de leurs médisances les personnes les plus honorables, n’osèrent rien tenter contre l’honneur de Marcelle.
Elle fut, au jugement des contemporains, la première qui confondit le paganisme en faisant voir à tout le monde ce que doit être, dans son costume et ses mœurs, une veuve chrétienne.
Rome avait besoin de ce spectacle d’éclatante vertu. Les veuves païennes, en effet, aussitôt après la mort de leur époux, ne songeaient qu’à redoubler de luxe et de mollesse. Au milieu de ces excès elles feignaient de pleurer leur mari, mais elles dévoilaient la joie qu’elles éprouvaient d’être délivrées de leur domination, en en cherchant d’autres qu’elles pourraient assujettir à tous leurs caprices.
Sainte Marcelle fut la première chrétienne qui osa contrecarrer directement ces mœurs païennes. Elle se servait de ses vêtements pour se préserver du froid, non pour se parer. Elle se défendit complètement l’usage de l’or, aimant mieux l’employer à nourrir les pauvres que l’enfermer dans ses coffres.
Elle était souvent obligée de recevoir des ecclésiastiques ou des moines, mais jamais elle ne consentit à les voir sans témoins.
Toutes ses suivantes étaient des vierges et des veuves de grande vertu, car le monde sait qu’on se plait en compagnie de ceux qu’on aime, et il juge souvent d’une personne par celles dont elle est entourée.
En outre, dès les premiers temps de son veuvage, elle commença à avoir pour la Sainte-Ecriture cet amour vif et ardent qui sera comme le pivot de sa vie spirituelle. Les livres Saints étaient l’objet de ses méditations continuelles. Mais son activité ne pouvait se contenter de réflexions plus ou moins vagues et infructueuses. Elle s’efforçait de mettre en pratique les préceptes divins, sachant bien qu’aucune science, si relevée qu’elle soit, ne pourrait nous empêcher de rougir de honte quand notre conscience nous reproche le peu de conformité qu’il y a entre notre conduite et nos connaissances. C’est pourquoi elle s’adonnait avec ardeur à la pratique de toutes les vertus chrétiennes.
Ne pouvant, sans exposer gravement sa santé, jeûner autant qu’elle l’eut voulu, elle se dédommageait par l’abstinence complète de toute chair. Elle était d’ailleurs d’une telle sobriété, qu’elle pouvait s’appliquer à l’oraison et à la lecture après le repas, sans que l’esprit trouvât un obstacle dans l’appesantissement du corps.
En outre elle paraissait peu souvent en public et évitait particulièrement de fréquenter les dames de condition, de peur d’être obligée de voir chez elles ce qu’elle avait méprisé. Elle visitait souvent les basiliques des Apôtres et des martyrs pour y prier, mais en secret et au moment où la foule n’y affluait point.
Elle était si soumise envers sa mère, que, pour lui obéir, elle agissait souvent contre ses propres désirs. Albina aimait extrêmement ses proches, et se voyant privée elle-même de postérité, elle reportait toute son affection sur les enfants de son frère et voulait leur faire part de tous ses biens. Marcelle préférait les pauvres, mais, pour ne point contredire sa mère, elle donna ses pierreries et une partie de ses richesses à ses parents. Ceux-ci n’en avaient nul besoin ; la Sainte aima mieux perdre tout cela que de contrister le cœur de sa mère.
Sainte Marcelle se fait religieuse
Mais Dieu appelait sainte Marcelle à une destinée autrement grande et belle, et à laquelle la préparait cette pratique énergique des vertus les plus humbles. Il avait résolu d’opposer cette femme, comme une digue infranchissable, aux flots de la corruption païenne, qui menaçaient de submerger le monde chrétien, même après la chute des idoles. Sainte Marcelle la première se rangea avec ardeur sous la bannière de la vie religieuse ; elle y entraîna par son exemple un grand nombre de nobles patriciennes, qui régénérèrent la société. Elle commença sous l’inspiration de Dieu, un des plus admirables mouvements de restauration chrétienne que l’histoire connaisse.
Mais elle reçut la première impulsion du grand docteur de l’Eglise, saint Athanase, patriarche d’Alexandrie. Ce défenseur intrépide de la vérité catholique contre les erreurs ariennes fut trois fois exilé et chassé de son siège par les ennemis de l’Eglise. Chaque fois il vint à Rome chercher un refuge auprès du Siège Apostolique.
Dans l’un de ses voyages, Albina, la mère de sainte Marcelle, eut le bonheur de recevoir cet hôte illustre. Pour payer une hospitalité si généreusement donnée, Athanase édifiant les âmes par le récit des merveilles opérées par Dieu dans les déserts de la Thébaïde.
L’âme ardente de Marcelle, naturellement portée aux grandes choses, reçut de la vue et des entretiens du saint Evêque une impression extraordinaire, qui eut sur tout le reste de sa vie une influence décisive. Son ardeur s’enflammait en attendant raconter les prodiges de vertu qui éclataient au désert dans les Antoine, les Pacôme, les Hilarion, et elle résolut de mettre en pratique un genre de vie dont saint Athanase lui avait révélé l’excellence.
Elle se fit de son palais du Mont-Aventin une solitude où elle vivait dans la prière, les austérités et les bonnes œuvres. Elle fit plus, et s’éleva courageusement au-dessus du préjugé patricien, qui attachait comme une honte à la profession monastique et à l’habit plébéien et grossier que portaient les hommes consacrés à Dieu, elle osa, la première de toutes les matrones, prendre cet habit méprisé et imiter la vie des anachorètes.
On se récria d’abord contre cette singularité ; on se tut enfin devant cette vertu, et bientôt son exemple devenant contagieux, lui suscita en foule des imitatrices qui étonnèrent Rome par leurs exemples de sacrifice et d’austérité.
Parmi celles qui entrèrent dans cette voie généreuse, les unes continuèrent à rester dans leurs demeures, comme les vierges et les veuves des premiers siècles ; d’autres sentirent le besoin de se rapprocher et de se réunir, et commencèrent, sans règle déterminée, des essais de vie commune ; les couvents naissaient ainsi à Rome dans les palais des patriciennes. Le centre principal et la grande excitatrice de tout ce mouvement, c’était Marcelle, qui tenait plus que toute autre, de sa forte et ardente nature, les qualités qui attirent et entraînent. De jeunes vierges et des veuves plus avancées en âge vinrent habiter avec elle, et former au Mont-Aventin une petite communauté dont elle était la mère.
Ce renouvellement de vertu chrétienne était puissamment encouragé et soutenu par le pieux Pontife qui occupait alors la chaire de saint Pierre : le pape saint Damase. Le but principal qu’il proposait à ses efforts était de maintenir parmi les fidèles le pur esprit du christianisme, et de lutter énergiquement contre l’invasion des mœurs romaines et païennes dans l’Eglise.
Aussi était-il le protecteur et l’admirateur le plus déclaré des saintes veuves ; il avait en outre publié des écrits en prose et des poésies pour exalter la virginité et y appeler les âmes d’élite.
Saint Jérôme devient le directeur de ses veuves
Mais saint Damas fit plus pour elles, il leur donna un directeur. En 382 il convoqua à Rome un concile où se rendirent plusieurs évêques d’Orient. Parmi eux se trouvait saint Epiphane de Salamine, qui amena avec lui dans la ville éternelle un homme déjà illustre par sa grande science sacrée et profane, et sa vie extraordinairement sainte au désert : c’était saint Jérôme. Ce grand docteur assista au concile dont il fut secrétaire, puis resta dans la capitale du monde chrétien pour travailler avec saint Damase à une édition latine de la Bible.
Il ne tarda pas à remarquer les nobles et pieuses femmes qui pratiquaient au milieu du luxe de la vie romaine, les plus austères vertus. Marcelle, la mère de tout le petit cénacle de l’Aventin, avait attiré ses regards. Mais dans sa réserve un peu farouche il se tenait complètement à l’écart. Les saintes veuves désiraient ardemment profiter des lumières de ce moine austère, en qui elles pressentaient un appui nécessaire pour leur genre de vie, déjà si combattu, et un maître incomparable dans la science et dans la vertu.
Marcelle fit auprès de Jérôme les premières démarches. Elle les fit avec son ardeur ordinaire. Jérôme résista longtemps, Marcelle redoubla ses instances ; et enfin le docteur se décida à venir donner à l’Aventin un commentaire des Saints Livres. La joie fut grande à cette nouvelle parmi toutes les vierges et les veuves disciples ou amies de Marcelle. Celles qui n’étaient point à l’Aventin y accoururent, et Jérôme commença ses leçons devant ce cercle d’élite, s’efforçant d’expliquer le sens littéral, qui lui servait de fondement pour l’explication mystique et les ingénieuses applications qu’il en faisait à la vie chrétienne.
Sa grande érudition, sa vive et impétueuse éloquence, son visage austère amaigri par la pénitence et bruni par le soleil de l’Orient, son regard animé, son geste brusque, tout donnait à sa parole un ascendant extraordinaire sur les âmes qu’il dominait et dirigeait vigoureusement vers Dieu.
Ses disciples le suivirent ardemment dans cette voie, bien plus elles l’excitaient lui-même à des études plus approfondies en le pressant chaque jour par des questions nouvelles : « Ce que je voyais en elles, écrivait-il plus tard, d’esprit de pénétration, en même temps que de ravissante pureté et de vertu, je ne saurais le dire. »
La plus ardente à suivre le maître dans les voies de la science, et de la sainteté solide dont elle est le fondement, était sans contredit sainte Marcelle. Son esprit et son cœur perpétuellement en contact avec la Bible, source de toute lumière et de toute grâce, devinrent comme un temple qui faisait les délices du roi du ciel. Sa piété était grande, forte et éclairée.
Tout le temps qui n’était point occupé par l’étude ou la prière, Marcelle l’employait au travail des mains, afin de fuir l’oisiveté et éviter l’ennui, autant que pour exécuter la sentence divine notifiée à Adam après son péché, et gagner de quoi faire l’aumône.
Elle profita à un tel point des leçons de saint Jérôme, qu’après le départ de Rome du grand docteur, s’il arrivait des contestations touchant des passages de l’Ecriture, on s’en remettait à son arbitrage. Mais elle répondait avec tant de modestie aux questions qu’on lui faisait, qu’elle présentait tout ce qu’elle disait comme l’ayant appris de Jérôme,.
Cependant elle souffrait d’être éloignée de celui dont Dieu s’était servi pour l’initier à la connaissance et à la pratique de sa parole. Elle entreprit de rapprocher les distances et d’entretenir une correspondance active entre Rome et Bethléem, où Jérôme s’était retiré pour vaquer en paix à la contemplation et à l’étude des Livres-Saints.
Saint Jérôme essaye d’attirer sa disciple à Bethléem
Sur ces entrefaites, vers 386, Albina, la mère de notre Sainte mourut. Marcelle écrivit à Jérôme une lettre baignée de ses larmes, où elle lui annonçait cette mort si douloureuse. L’illustre docteur cherchant quel baume il pourrait mettre sur cette blessure, eut la pensée d’offrir à Marcelle la consolation qu’il estimait la meilleure et la plus conforme aux aspirations de cette âme forte, la consolation des Saintes Écritures.
Dans cette pensée il se remit avec ardeur à son commentaire de l’Épître aux Galates qu’il avait commencé, et quand il l’eut terminé, il l’envoya à Marcelle. Celle-ci, touchée de cette attention, remercia saint Jérôme avec effusion, et trouva un remède à sa douleur dans la méditation de ce travail.
Mais le saint directeur ne se contenta point de ce résultat, il avait attiré près de lui quelques disciples de Marcelle, entr’autres sainte Paule ; il se joignit à elles pour essayer d’enlever notre Sainte au tumulte de Rome, pour la faire venir en Judée.
En conséquence, Marcelle reçut bientôt de ses amies une lettre pressante où on l’invitait à faire comme Abraham, à sortir de sa patrie pour aller dans la terre promise, sanctifiée par l’attente, la venue, la vie, la passion et la mort du Verbe de Dieu incarné.
Sainte Marcelle n’avait pas besoin d’être tant pressée. Son cœur était à Bethléem, mais la communauté qu’elle dirigeait à Rome réclamait impérieusement sa présence, elle dut faire céder ses désirs personnels devant un bien plus grand, et rester au milieu d’une ville dont les mœurs corrompues étaient si peu en rapport avec sa vie austère.
Sainte Marcelle fait condamner Rufin et l’origénisme
Dieu la fit rester dans la Ville éternelle pour secourir l’Eglise dans une tempête qui la menaçait.
L’Orient était déjà depuis longtemps divisé à propos d’Origène et de ses erreurs. Saint Jérôme s’y montrait le défenseur acharné de la doctrine catholique contre Rufin, qui avait été longtemps son ami, mais qui soutenait l’origénisme. Celui-ci vaincu en Orient changea de tactique ; il vint à Rome et y publia une traduction du Périarchon d’Origène, où le docteur alexandrin avait condensé toute sa doctrine. Mais le traducteur avait eu soin de supprimer de son travail les erreurs trop manifestes : il ne laissa subsister que celles qui étaient plus subtiles et n’avaient pas été directement condamnées dans les grands Conciles.
Grâce à ce stratagème, Rufin surprit la simplicité de nombreux chrétiens, et put, de ses pieds tout bourbeux, selon l’expression de saint Jérôme, remplir de fange la source très pure de la foi, l’Eglise romaine.
Sainte Marcelle démasqua toutes ses habiletés, elle écrivit à saint Jérôme pour lui demander la vraie traduction du Périarchon. L’ayant obtenue, elle se rendit auprès du Pape pour faire poursuivre et condamner l’hérétique. Elle arriva à son but et fut cause de nombreuses rétractations.
Prise de Rome – Mort de sainte Marcelle
Ce fut sa dernière victoire. Il était temps que les Romains s’unissent dans une seule et même foi, car beaucoup d’entre eux devaient mourir sous les coups des Barbares.
En 410, Alaric, roi des Goths, était aux portes de Rome. Il promettait, au prix d’une énorme rançon, la vie sauve aux habitants. On le crut, et on lui livra toutes les immenses richesses de la Ville éternelle. Ces prodigieux amas d’or augmentèrent la soif des barbares au lieu de l’éteindre.
Trois jours après, au mépris de la foi jurée, les Goths rentrèrent dans la ville pour la livrer au pillage. Plusieurs d’entre eux pénétrèrent sur le mont Aventin dans le palais de Marcelle. Ils comptaient trouver de l’or dans cette maison splendide, et, n’en rencontrant point, ils en demandaient à grands cris. Marcelle se présenta intrépidement aux barbares. Ses richesses s’étaient écoulées en aumônes ; mais il lui restait à défendre un trésor autrement précieux : c’était la jeune patricienne Principia, seule vierge de la communauté qui n’eût point fui à l’approche des envahisseurs : « Que voulez-vous, demanda la Sainte aux barbares ? – Donnez-nous tout votre argent, répondirent-ils. »
Et la sainte veuve leur montrant le vêtement grossier qui la couvrait, répartit : « De l’argent ? une femme vêtue comme moi n’en a pas. »
Les barbares s’irritèrent, ils la renversèrent par terre et la frappèrent cruellement : « Faites de moi, s’écria-t-elle, tout ce que vous voudrez. Prenez d’ailleurs, tout ici est à vous. » Puis se relevant avec une énergie, et serrant dans une étreinte désespérée la jeune Principia : « Mais celle-ci, cria-t-elle aux envahisseurs avec un irrésistible accent de mère, celle-ci, au nom de Dieu, ne la touchez pas. »
Dans ce grand désastre que n’avait point conjuré la majesté de la Ville éternelle, une autre majesté protégeait Rome et en imposait aux Barbares, la majesté des saints Apôtres Pierre et Paul, dont Rome gardait les tombeaux. Par un respect religieux des Goths à demi chrétiens, les basiliques des deux Apôtres étaient devenues un asile qu’Alaric n’osa violer. Marcelle et Principia furent conduites à la basilique de Saint-Paul par les envahisseurs de leur demeure.
En y arrivant Marcelle rendit grâces à Dieu de ce qu’il avait sauvegardé la vertu de sa compagne et qu’il avait elle-même réduite à un tel état de dénûment qu’elle pouvait dire avec Job : « Je suis sortie nue du sein de ma mère, j’entrerai nue dans le tombeau. La volonté du Seigneur a été accomplie. Que son saint Nom soit béni ! »
Peu après, en effet, épuisée par de si fortes émotions, elle rendait sa grande âme à Dieu, le 30 janvier 410, âgée d’environ quatre-vingts ans.
AVANT-PROPOS. Où il est parlé de la grandeur de la naissance de sainte Marcella.
CHAPITRE I. Sainte Marcella, étant demeurée veuve, ne veut point se remarier et refuse le plus grand de Rome.
CHAPITRE II. L'admirable vertu de sainte Marcella la mit au-dessus de la médisance.
CHAPITRE III. Amour de sainte Marcella pour l'Ecriture sainte. Son excellente conduite. hale fut la première dans Rome qui embrassa une vie retirée et solitaire.
CHAPITRE IV. Des louanges des femmes. Sainte Marcella se préparait toujours à la mort.
CHAPITRE V. Saint Jérôme, étant allé à Rome, fit amitié avec sainte Marcella. Combien cette sainte était savante dans les saintes Ecritures, et de sa vie solitaire et retirée.
CHAPITRE VI. Services rendus à l’Eglise contre les hérétiques par sainte Marcella.
CHAPITRE VII. Rome prise et saccagée par les Goths. Mort de sainte Marcella.
Marcella of Rome, Widow (RM)
Died August 410. Saint Marcella met Saint Athanasius when she was a child and was enthralled by his stories of Egyptian ascetics. She married to please her mother, but was widowed seven months later. Thereafter, the Roman patrician refused the marriage proposal of Cerealis, the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar.
January 31
St. Marcella, Widow
SHE is styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost her husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit of Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Cæsar, and resolved to imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and flesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the churches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man alone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality, who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time filled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in answer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she had long before distributed among the poor.
All that time she trembled only for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia, (not her daughter, as some have reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no insult. God moved them to compassion. They conducted them both to the church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary with that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short time, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st of January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96. ol. 16. ad Principiam, t. 4. p. 778. Ed. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410. and Bollandus, t. 2. p. 1105.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume I: January. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
St.
Marcella
Saint JEROME, To Principia (Letter 127)
This letter is really a memoir of Marcella (for whom see note on Letter XXIII.) addressed to her greatest friend. After describing her history, character, and favourite studies, Jerome goes on to recount her eminent services in the cause of orthodoxy at a time when, through the efforts of Rufinus, it seemed likely that Origenism would prevail at Rome (§§9, 10). He briefly relates the fall of the city and the horrors consequent upon it (§§12, 13) which appear to have been the immediate cause of Marcella's death (§14). The date of the letter is 412 A.D.
1. You have besought me often and earnestly, Principia, virgin of Christ, to dedicate a letter to the memory of that holy woman Marcella, and to set forth the goodness long enjoyed by us for others to know and to imitate. I am so anxious myself to do justice to her merits that it grieves me that you should spur me on and fancy that your entreaties are needed when I do not yield even to you in love of her. In putting upon record her signal virtues I shall receive far more benefit myself than I can possibly confer upon others. If I have hitherto remained silent and have allowed two years to go over without making any sign, this has not been owing to a wish to ignore her as you wrongly suppose, but to an incredible sorrow which so overcame my mind that I judged it better to remain silent for a while than to praise her virtues in inadequate language. Neither will I now follow the rules of rhetoric in eulogizing one so dear to both of us and to all the saints, Marcella the glory of her native Rome. I will not set forth her illustrious family and lofty lineage, nor will I trace her pedigree through a line of consuls and prætorian prefects. I will praise her for nothing but the virtue which is her own and which is the more noble, because forsaking both wealth and rank she has sought the true nobility of poverty and lowliness.
2. Her father's death left her an orphan, and she had been married less than seven months when her husband was taken from her. Then as she was young, and highborn, as well as distinguished for her beauty— always an attraction to men— and her self-control, an illustrious consular named Cerealis paid court to her with great assiduity. Being an old man he offered to make over to her his fortune so that she might consider herself less his wife than his daughter. Her mother Albina went out of her way to secure for the young widow so exalted a protector. But Marcella answered: had I a wish to marry and not rather to dedicate myself to perpetual chastity, I should look for a husband and not for an inheritance; and when her suitor argued that sometimes old men live long while young men die early, she cleverly retorted: a young man may indeed die early, but an old man cannot live long. This decided rejection of Cerealis convinced others that they had no hope of winning her hand.
In the gospel according to Luke we read the following passage: there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Luke 2:36-37 It was no marvel that she won the vision of the Saviour, whom she sought so earnestly. Let us then compare her case with that of Marcella and we shall see that the latter has every way the advantage. Anna lived with her husband seven years; Marcella seven months. Anna only hoped for Christ; Marcella held Him fast. Anna confessed him at His birth; Marcella believed in Him crucified. Anna did not deny the Child; Marcella rejoiced in the Man as king. I do not wish to draw distinctions between holy women on the score of their merits, as some persons have made it a custom to do as regards holy men and leaders of churches; the conclusion at which I aim is that, as both have one task, so both have one reward.
3. In a slander-loving community such as Rome, filled as it formerly was with people from all parts and bearing the palm for wickedness of all kinds, detraction assailed the upright and strove to defile even the pure and the clean. In such an atmosphere it is hard to escape from the breath of calumny. A stainless reputation is difficult nay almost impossible to attain; the prophet yearns for it but hardly hopes to win it: Blessed, he says, are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. The undefiled in the way of this world are those whose fair fame no breath of scandal has ever sullied, and who have earned no reproach at the hands of their neighbours. It is this which makes the Saviour say in the gospel: agree with, or be complaisant to, your adversary while you are in the way with him. Matthew 5:25 Who ever heard a slander of Marcella that deserved the least credit? Or who ever credited such without making himself guilty of malice and defamation? No; she put the Gentiles to confusion by showing them the nature of that Christian widowhood which her conscience and mien alike set forth. For women of the world are wont to paint their faces with rouge and white-lead, to wear robes of shining silk, to adorn themselves with jewels, to put gold chains round their necks, to pierce their ears and hang in them the costliest pearls of the Red Sea, and to scent themselves with musk. While they mourn for the husbands they have lost they rejoice at their own deliverance and freedom to choose fresh partners— not, as God wills, to obey these Ephesians 5:22 but to rule over them.
With this object in view they select for their partners poor men who contented with the mere name of husbands are the more ready to put up with rivals as they know that, if they so much as murmur, they will be cast off at once. Our widow's clothing was meant to keep out the cold and not to show her figure. Of gold she would not wear so much as a seal-ring, choosing to store her money in the stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own disposal. She went nowhere without her mother, and would never see without witnesses such monks and clergy as the needs of a large house required her to interview. Her train was always composed of virgins and widows, and these women serious and staid; for, as she well knew, the levity of the maids speaks ill for the mistress and a woman's character is shown by her choice of companions.
4. Her delight in the divine scriptures was incredible. She was for ever singing, Your words have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against you, as well as the words which describe the perfect man, his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law does he meditate day and night. This meditation in the law she understood not of a review of the written words as among the Jews the Pharisees think, but of action according to that saying of the apostle, whether, therefore, you eat or drink or what soever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 She remembered also the prophet's words, through your precepts I get understanding, and felt sure that only when she had fulfilled these would she be permitted to understand the scriptures. In this sense we read elsewhere that Jesus began both to do and teach. Acts 1:1 For teaching is put to the blush when a man's conscience rebukes him; and it is in vain that his tongue preaches poverty or teaches almsgiving if he is rolling in the riches of Crœsus and if, in spite of his threadbare cloak, he has silken robes at home to save from the moth.
Marcella practised fasting, but in moderation. She abstained from eating flesh, and she knew rather the scent of wine than its taste; touching it only for her stomach's sake and for her often infirmities. 1 Timothy 5:23 She seldom appeared in public and took care to avoid the houses of great ladies, that she might not be forced to look upon what she had once for all renounced. She frequented the basilicas of apostles and martyrs that she might escape from the throng and give herself to private prayer. So obedient was she to her mother that for her sake she did things of which she herself disapproved. For example, when her mother, careless of her own offspring, was for transferring all her property from her children and grandchildren to her brother's family, Marcella wished the money to be given to the poor instead, and yet could not bring herself to thwart her parent. Therefore she made over her ornaments and other effects to persons already rich, content to throw away her money rather than to sadden her mother's heart.
5. In those days no highborn lady at Rome had made profession of the monastic life, or had ventured— so strange and ignominious and degrading did it then seem— publicly to call herself a nun. It was from some priests of Alexandria, and from pope Athanasius, and subsequently from Peter, who, to escape the persecution of the Arian heretics, had all fled for refuge to Rome as the safest haven in which they could find communion— it was from these that Marcella heard of the life of the blessed Antony, then still alive, and of the monasteries in the Thebaid founded by Pachomius, and of the discipline laid down for virgins and for widows. Nor was she ashamed to profess a life which she had thus learned to be pleasing to Christ. Many years after her example was followed first by Sophronia and then by others, of whom it may be well said in the words of Ennius:
Would that ne'er in Pelion's woods
Had the axe these pinetrees felled.
My revered friend Paula was blessed with Marcella's friendship, and it was in Marcella's cell that Eustochium, that paragon of virgins, was gradually trained. Thus it is easy to see of what type the mistress was who found such pupils.
The unbelieving reader may perhaps laugh at me for dwelling so long on the praises of mere women; yet if he will but remember how holy women followed our Lord and Saviour and ministered to Him of their substance, and how the three Marys stood before the cross and especially how Mary Magdalen— called the tower from the earnestness and glow of her faith— was privileged to see the rising Christ first of all before the very apostles, he will convict himself of pride sooner than me of folly. For we judge of people's virtue not by their sex but by their character, and hold those to be worthy of the highest glory who have renounced both rank and wealth. It was for this reason that Jesus loved the evangelist John more than the other disciples. For John was of noble birth and known to the high priest, yet was so little appalled by the plottings of the Jews that he introduced Peter into his court, and was the only one of the apostles bold enough to take his stand before the cross. For it was he who took the Saviour's parent to his own home; John 19:26-27 it was the virgin son who received the virgin mother as a legacy from the Lord.
6. Marcella then lived the ascetic life for many years, and found herself old before she bethought herself that she had once been young. She often quoted with approval Plato's saying that philosophy consists in meditating on death. A truth which our own apostle endorses when he says: for your salvation I die daily. Indeed according to the old copies our Lord himself says: whosoever does not bear His cross daily and come after me cannot be my disciple. Ages before, the Holy Spirit had said by the prophet: for your sake are we killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Many generations afterwards the words were spoken: remember the end and you shall never do amiss, Sirach 7:36 as well as that precept of the eloquent satirist: live with death in your mind; time flies; this say of mine is so much taken from it. Well then, as I was saying, she passed her days and lived always in the thought that she must die. Her very clothing was such as to remind her of the tomb, and she presented herself as a living sacrifice, reasonable and acceptable, unto God. Romans 12:1
7. When the needs of the Church at length brought me to Rome in company with the reverend pontiffs, Paulinus and Epiphanius— the first of whom ruled the church of the Syrian Antioch while the second presided over that of Salamis in Cyprus—I in my modesty was for avoiding the eyes of highborn ladies, yet she pleaded so earnestly, both in season and out of season 2 Timothy 4:2 as the apostle says, that at last her perseverance overcame my reluctance. And, as in those days my name was held in some renown as that of a student of the scriptures, she never came to see me that she did not ask me some question concerning them, nor would she at once acquiesce in my explanations but on the contrary would dispute them; not, however, for argument's sake but to learn the answers to those objections which might, as she saw, be made to my statements. How much virtue and ability, how much holiness and purity I found in her I am afraid to say; both lest I may exceed the bounds of men's belief and lest I may increase your sorrow by reminding you of the blessings that you have lost. This much only will I say, that whatever in me was the fruit of long study and as such made by constant meditation a part of my nature, this she tasted, this she learned and made her own. Consequently after my departure from Rome, in case of a dispute arising as to the testimony of scripture on any subject, recourse was had to her to settle it. And so wise was she and so well did she understand what philosophers call τό πρέπον, that is, the becoming, in what she did, that when she answered questions she gave her own opinion not as her own but as from me or some one else, thus admitting that what she taught she had herself learned from others. For she knew that the apostle had said: I suffer not a woman to teach, 1 Timothy 2:12 and she would not seem to inflict a wrong upon the male sex many of whom (including sometimes priests) questioned her concerning obscure and doubtful points.
8. I am told that my place with her was immediately taken by you, that you attached yourself to her, and that, as the saying goes, you never let even a hair's-breadth come between her and you. You both lived in the same house and occupied the same room so that every one in the city knew for certain that you had found a mother in her and she a daughter in you. In the suburbs you found for yourselves a monastic seclusion, and chose the country instead of the town because of its loneliness. For a long time you lived together, and as many ladies shaped their conduct by your examples, I had the joy of seeing Rome transformed into another Jerusalem. Monastic establishments for virgins became numerous, and of hermits there were countless numbers. In fact so many were the servants of God that monasticism which had before been a term of reproach became subsequently one of honour. Meantime we consoled each other for our separation by words of mutual encouragement, and discharged in the spirit the debt which in the flesh we could not pay. We always went to meet each other's letters, tried to outdo each other in attentions, and anticipated each other in courteous inquiries. Not much was lost by a separation thus effectually bridged by a constant correspondence.
9. While Marcella was thus serving the Lord in holy tranquillity, there arose in these provinces a tornado of heresy which threw everything into confusion; indeed so great was the fury into which it lashed itself that it spared neither itself nor anything that was good. And as if it were too little to have disturbed everything here, it introduced a ship freighted with blasphemies into the port of Rome itself. The dish soon found itself a cover; and the muddy feet of heretics fouled the clear waters Ezekiel 34:18 of the faith of Rome. No wonder that in the streets and in the market places a soothsayer can strike fools on the back or, catching up his cudgel, shatter the teeth of such as carp at him; when such venomous and filthy teaching as this has found at Rome dupes whom it can lead astray. Next came the scandalous version of Origen's book On First Principles, and that 'fortunate' disciple who would have been indeed fortunate had he never fallen in with such a master. Next followed the confutation set forth by my supporters, which destroyed the case of the Pharisees and threw them into confusion. It was then that the holy Marcella, who had long held back lest she should be thought to act from party motives, threw herself into the breach. Conscious that the faith of Rome— once praised by an apostle Romans 1:8 — was now in danger, and that this new heresy was drawing to itself not only priests and monks but also many of the laity besides imposing on the bishop who fancied others as guileless as he was himself, she publicly withstood its teachers choosing to please God rather than men.
10. In the gospel the Saviour commends the unjust steward because, although he defrauded his master, he acted wisely for his own interests. Luke 16:8 The heretics in this instance pursued the same course; for, seeing how great a matter a little fire had kindled, James 3:5 and that the flames applied by them to the foundations had by this time reached the housetops, and that the deception practised on many could no longer be hid, they asked for and obtained letters of commendation from the church, so that it might appear that till the day of their departure they had continued in full communion with it. Shortly afterwards the distinguished Anastasius succeeded to the pontificate; but he was soon taken away, for it was not fitting that the head of the world should be struck off during the episcopate of one so great. He was removed, no doubt, that he might not seek to turn away by his prayers the sentence of God passed once for all. For the words of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning Israel applied equally to Rome: pray not for this people for their good. When they fast I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and oblation, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Jeremiah 14:11-12 You will say, what has this to do with the praises of Marcella? I reply, She it was who originated the condemnation of the heretics. She it was who furnished witnesses first taught by them and then carried away by their heretical teaching. She it was who showed how large a number they had deceived and who brought up against them the impious books On First Principles, books which were passing from hand to hand after being 'improved' by the hand of the scorpion. She it was lastly who called on the heretics in letter after letter to appear in their own defence. They did not indeed venture to come, for they were so conscience-stricken that they let the case go against them by default rather than face their accusers and be convicted by them. This glorious victory originated with Marcella, she was the source and cause of this great blessing. You who shared the honour with her know that I speak the truth. You know too that out of many incidents I only mention a few, not to tire out the reader by a wearisome recapitulation. Were I to say more, ill natured persons might fancy me, under pretext of commending a woman's virtues, to be giving vent to my own rancour. I will pass now to the remainder of my story.
11. The whirlwind passed from the West into the East and threatened in its passage to shipwreck many a noble craft. Then were the words of Jesus fulfilled: when the son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8 The love of many waxed cold. Yet the few who still loved the true faith rallied to my side. Men openly sought to take their lives and every expedient was employed against them. So hotly indeed did the persecution rage that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation; nay more he committed murder, if not in actual violence at least in will. Then behold God blew and the tempest passed away; so that the prediction of the prophet was fulfilled, you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. In that very day his thoughts perish, as also the gospel-saying, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have provided? Luke 12:20
12. Whilst these things were happening in Jebus a dreadful rumour came from the West. Rome had been besieged and its citizens had been forced to buy their lives with gold. Then thus despoiled they had been besieged again so as to lose not their substance only but their lives. My voice sticks in my throat; and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken; nay more famine was beforehand with the sword and but few citizens were left to be made captives. In their frenzy the starving people had recourse to hideous food; and tore each other limb from limb that they might have flesh to eat. Even the mother did not spare the babe at her breast. In the night was Moab taken, in the night did her wall fall down. Isaiah 15:1 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance; your holy temple have they defiled; they have made Jerusalem an orchard. The dead bodies of your servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of your saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.
Who can set forth the carnage of that night?
What tears are equal to its agony?
Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
In many a ghastly shape does death appear.
13. Meantime, as was natural in a scene of such confusion, one of the bloodstained victors found his way into Marcella's house. Now be it mine to say what I have heard, to relate what holy men have seen; for there were some such present and they say that you too were with her in the hour of danger. When the soldiers entered she is said to have received them without any look of alarm; and when they asked her for gold she pointed to her coarse dress to show them that she had no buried treasure. However they would not believe in her self-chosen poverty, but scourged her and beat her with cudgels. She is said to have felt no pain but to have thrown herself at their feet and to have pleaded with tears for you, that you might not be taken from her, or owing to your youth have to endure what she as an old woman had no occasion to fear. Christ softened their hard hearts and even among bloodstained swords natural affection asserted its rights. The barbarians conveyed both you and her to the basilica of the apostle Paul, that you might find there either a place of safety or, if not that, at least a tomb. Hereupon Marcella is said to have burst into great joy and to have thanked God for having kept you unharmed in answer to her prayer. She said she was thankful too that the taking of the city had found her poor, not made her so, that she was now in want of daily bread, that Christ satisfied her needs so that she no longer felt hunger, that she was able to say in word and in deed: naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there: the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
14. After a few days she fell asleep in the Lord; but to the last her powers remained unimpaired. You she made the heir of her poverty, or rather the poor through you. When she closed her eyes, it was in your arms; when she breathed her last breath, your lips received it; you shed tears but she smiled conscious of having led a good life and hoping for her reward hereafter.
In one short night I have dictated this letter in honour of you, revered Marcella, and of you, my daughter Principia; not to show off my own eloquence but to express my heartfelt gratitude to you both; my one desire has been to please both God and my readers.
About this page
Source. Translated by W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001127.htm>.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
_-_S._Marcella_08_Interno.JPG)
Appartenne ad una delle piú illustri famiglie romane: quella dei Marcelli (secondo altri dei Claudi). Nacque verso il 330, ma non ebbe la giovinezza felice, essendo ben presto rimasta orfana del padre. Contratto matrimonio in giovane età fu nuovamente colpita da un gravissimo lutto per la morte del marito avvenuta sette mesi dopo la celebrazione delle nozze. Questi luttuosi avvenimenti fecero maggiormente riflettere Marcella sulla caducità delle cose terrene tanto piú che nella fanciullezza era rimasta assai affascinata dalle mirabili attività del grande anacoreta Antonio, narrate nella sua casa dal vescovo Atanasio (340-343).
Lo spirito ascetico propugnato dal monachesimo, consistente nell'abbandono di ogni bene mondano, andò sempre piú conquistando l'animo della giovane vedova. Quando perciò le furono offerte vantaggiose seconde nozze col console Cereale (358), nonostante le premurose pressioni della madre Albina, oppose al ventilato matrimonio un netto rifiuto, motivato dal desiderio di dedicarsi interamente ad una vita ritirata facendo professione di perfetta castità.
Cosí Marcella, secondo s. Girolamo, fu la prima matrona romana che sviluppò fra le famiglie nobili i principi del monachesimo. Il suo maestoso palazzo dell'Aventino andò trasformandosi in un asceterio ove confluirono altre nobili romane come Sofronia, Asella, Principia, Marcellina, Lea; la stessa madre Albina si associò a questa nuova forma d i vita.
Piú che di vita monastica in senso stretto può parlarsi di gruppi ascetici senza precise regole, ma ispirati ai principi di austerità e di disprezzo del mondo, propri della scuola egiziana, assai conosciuti attraverso la vita di s. Antonio e le frequenti visite di monaci orientali. Lo stesso vescovo di Alessandria, Pietro, fu nel 373 ospite della casa Marcella e narrò la vita e le regole dei monaci egiziani.
Porse proprio dopo il 373 la casa di Marcella divenne un vero centro di propaganda monastica. Riservatezza, penitenza, digiuno, preghiera, studio, vesti dimesse, esclusione di vane conversazioni furono il quadro della vita quotidiana quale risulta dalle lettere di s. Girolamo, divenuto dal 382 il direttore spirituale del gruppo ascetico dell'Aventino. Nella domus di Marcella entravano vergini e vedove, preti e monaci per intrattenersi in conversazioni basate specialmente sulla S. Scrittura. Il sacro testo, specie il Salterio, non fu studiato solo superficialmente: per meglio comprenderne il significato Marcella imparò l'ebraico e sottopose al dotto Girolamo molte questioni esegetiche, come ne fanno fede varie lettere a lei dirette. Fra Girolamo e Marcella si strinse una profonda spirituale amicizia, continuata anche dopo la partenza del monaco per la Palestina.
Tuttavia questa donna fu di spirito piú moderato tanto da non condividere pienamente le violente diatribe e le acerbe polemiche del dotto esegeta. Simile moderazione dimostrò nelle pratiche ascetiche; pur amando e professando la povertà non alienò in favore della Chiesa e dei poveri tutti i suoi beni patrimoniali, anche per non recare dispiacere alla madre. Né volle trasferirsi a Betlemme, nonostante una pressante lettera delle amiche Paola ed Eustochio. Preferí invece continuare la diffusione della vita ascetica e penitente in Roma; per molti anni infatti la sua domus dell'Aventino rimase un cenacolo ascetico specie fra le vergini e le vedove della nobiltà.
Verso la fine del IV sec. si trasferí in un luogo piú isolato nelle vicinanze di Roma, forse un suo ager suburbanus, nel quale visse con la vergine Principia come madre e figlia. Rientrò in Roma nel 410 sotto il timore dell'invasione gota; in tale occasione Marcella subí percosse e maltrattamenti e a stento riuscí a salvare Principia dalle mani dei barbari, rifugiandosi nella basilica di S. Paolo.
Morí nello stesso anno e la sua festa è celebrata il 31 gennaio.
Autore: Gian Domenico Gordini
