Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Paula, daughter of Toxotius

Paula (3), granddaughter of foregoing, daughter of Toxotius, and of Laeta the daughter of Albinus, a heathen and a priest. Laeta embraced Christianity and wrote to consult Jerome as to Paula's education, who replied in Ep. 107, written in 401. He desires that she should lead the ascetic life and prepare to consecrate herself to Christ in virginity; and begs that, if she could not carry out at Rome the system of instruction in scriptural knowledge which he prescribed, she might be sent to Bethlehem. She was probably sent there while still a child, though not till after her grandmother's death. Several of Jerome's commentaries are dedicated to her with her aunt Eustochium, and she is mentioned by both Jerome and Augustine in their correspondence in 416 (Hieron. Epp. 134, 143, both to Augustine).

[W.H.F.]