St. Lea of Rome
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Lea, who was a widow who gave up all her wealth, to enter the consecrated life and by doing so she was able to receive great holiness and guidance through her prayers. However St. Lea is not a well known saint of devotion these days, probably because the only information known about her is from a letter that St. Jerome wrote to St. Marcella, that provided a small description of St. Lea’s life.
St. Lea was a widow during the fourth century. After her husband had passed away, she decided to retire and join a Roman monastery were she eventually became the Superior.
To understand St. Lea we have to have a quick understanding of who St. Jerome was:
St. Jerome was actually a scholarly monk, who is known the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate that he did. St. Jerome is also the Church’s only source of information on the life of St. Lea. St. Jerome talked about her in a letter that he wrote during the year 384, which was written to one of his students who happened to be St. Marcella. When reading his letter it was present that St. Lea was friends with both St. Jerome and St. Marcella. The reason he wrote his testimony was to “hail with joy the release of a soul which has trampled Satan under foot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of tranquility.”
St. Jerome in his letter describes St. Lea as his most saintly friend, which shows that St. Lea was able to stay strong in her faith even when their was a public pagan official named Praetextatus.
St. Jerome begun with describing St. Lea by stating that she made a complete conversion to the Lord leaving everything behind to follow his will and accomplish it. St. Lea as mentioned also took the role as head of the monastery regardless of how much pressure or struggles she would have to endure in the process of being head. St. Lea is said to have been like a true mother to all the nuns who were in the monastery. St. Lea would wear sackcloth instead of comfortable clothes, she would spend her nights in prayer instead of sleeping, and she would be an example to the other nuns by her actions not only through her words.
St. Jerome even mentions how humble St. Lea was and how she never worried about how she looked and always put other people above herself. St. Lea was said to be someone who did not care what she wore or how she looked, she would neglect her hair and she would only ever eat bland and plain food. St. Lea would also stay in a room that contained a bit of furniture because she would spend most of her time in deep prayer and devotion to God. St. Lea never let materialistic or earthy goods get in the way between her relationship with God.
St. Lea would look forward to the day that she would be able to arrive in Heaven so that she could receive the reward for all the virtues that she practiced while being on earth. That reward was being united with Christ in Heaven. Therefore she would always be a happy and caring person around other people and would be an excellent example for other people on how to live a life close to God and like Christ would.
In the letter that was written by St. Jerome, he compared St. Lea’s life and death to the life and death of Praetextus. Praetextus died the same year as St. Lea however he spent most of his life trying to get Rome's ancient pagan religion to return. St. Jerome compares their life and death by retelling Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and Dives. However he replaces St. Lea in the place of the suffering, and poor man.
St. Jerome says in his letter; “Welcomed into the choirs of the angels; she is comforted in Abraham's bosom. And, as once the beggar Lazarus saw the rich man, for all his purple, lying in torment, so does Lea see the consul, not now in his triumphal robe but clothed in mourning, and asking for a drop of water from her little finger.”
Therefore, St. Lea who may have seemed as a poor person who had little worth, and who lived a very difficult, and painful life, is now in Heaven triumphing with all the Saints and Angels.
At the end of his letter to St. Marcella, St. Jerome states that they should always remember St. Lea’s life lessons, and not let money, or materialistic things to weigh them down. Also, they should not seek worldly power, he mentions that as St. Lea did during her life they should never seek to posses both Christ and the world, because eternal things should be first and take the place of all earthly desires and materialistic things that this world tries to attract us with so that they may attract us away from God. Since we get closer to death each and every day, we must realize that we are mortal and understand that our eternal life is more important then the materialistic things of the world. We should not let the materialistic things of the world stop us from treating others with love, and spending time fulfilling God's will.
St. Lea lived by these rules and truly influenced St. Jerome which is clear in his letter and she continues to influence many other people who learn about her to live a deeper life of devotion to God. St. Lea’s feast day is celebrated on March 21.
Prayer to St. Lea
St. Lea intercede that we may have the strength we need to detach from all the materialistic and earthly things that we have in our life, so that we may live a life of deeper devotion and prayer to God. Intercede that we may be able to win more souls for God and do his will even if it means that we have to give up a life of comfort and live a life filled with discomforts, trials, temptations and suffering. Intercede that we may have the ability to give our lives fully and completely to God so that we may complete the mission he has planned for us.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord and Mary Our Mother in Heaven.
Amen
St. Lea pray for us
St. Joseph pray for us
May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.
Works cited:
Information (read from, not taken):
Catholic Online. “St. Lea.” St. Lea - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online. Accessed 22 March 2021.
Images:
Saint. Lea of Rome. March 22, 2021.
St. Lea. March 22, 2021.
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