Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Saint Jerome was, in some ways, forward thinking. His life’s work was translating the Bible into the common language of the people, which at the time was Latin. In other ways he was a bit of a curmudgeon, generally not known as a people person, and specifically known for having a dislike for the company of women. If one begins to go through his letters, however, one finds a specific exception: Marcella of Rome. She was a widow who, along with her mother, founded one of the first convents in Italy. She was, by every known account, beyond brilliant and gathered around her a group of women as invested in prayer and scholarship as she was. 

Marcella and Jerome met while he was still in Rome. He came to visit her convent, with much hesitation, and then was overwhelmed by her scholarship and knowledge. He soon moved to the Holy Land to complete his life’s work but remained in constant contact with Marcella through a series of letters. It was to her that he went to, again and again, whenever he was stuck at some point in his translation efforts or there was some puzzle of biblical theology he was trying to answer. This correspondence soon gave Marcella a perfect cover as she engaged other major theologians of the time… as Jerome explains “all that I had gathered by long study and constant meditation, she drank in, learned and possessed, and after I left Rome, she answered any arguments that were put to her about scripture, including obscure and ambiguous inquiries from priests, saying that the answers came from me or another man, even when they were her own, claiming always to be a pupil even when she was teaching, so that she did not seem to injure the male sex because the apostle did not permit women to teach.”

What results is a relationship where Jerome, generally not a fan of women’s scholarship and teaching, makes an exception regarding Marcella. She then uses the pretense of knowing him as a means to teach, presumably being just his cypher, what he teaches her… when in fact she is teaching both Jerome and the other theologians who come to her from her own authority. And Jerome, who is generally a reactionary curmudgeon, allows this pretense to happen because he cannot deny the sheer brilliance of Marcella.

It would be 1700 years after Marcella before parts of the Church truly began to value the calling of women to preach, teach, and serve as priest. In every generation, however, there were women like Marcella. Individuals that were not only supporting but teaching and guiding the theologians and priests of their day, the allowed exceptions. Situations where most everyone knew what was really going on but where most everyone was afraid to be honest about it. A reality that repeats itself with every marginalized group who has to tiptoe about their lives so that they “do not seem to injure the male sex,” as Jerome puts it. If we are going to honor Marcella on this day of her feast perhaps the question we all need ask is: are we prepared to be injured so that the individuals like Marcella in our world today can go about their lives honestly?

Pax,

—Ben