Letters

^9. To make a long story short, leaving on her left the mausoleum of Helena queen of Adiabene who in time of famine had sent grain to the Jewish people, Paula entered Jerusalem, Jebus, or Salem, that city of three names which after it had sunk to ashes and decay was by Ælius Hadrianus restored once more as Ælia. And although the proconsul of Palestine, who was an intimate friend of her house, sent forward his apparitors and gave orders to have his official residence placed at her disposal, she chose a humble cell in preference to it. Moreover, in visiting the holy places so great was the passion and the enthusiasm she exhibited for each, that she could never have torn herself away from one had she not been eager to visit the rest. Before the Cross she threw herself down in adoration as though she beheld the Lord hanging upon it: and when she entered the tomb which was the scene of the Resurrection she kissed the stone which the angel had rolled away from the door of the sepulchre. Indeed so ardent was her faith that she even licked with her mouth the very spot on which the Lord's body had lain, like one thirsty for the river which he has longed for. What tears she shed there, what groans she uttered, and what grief she poured forth, all Jerusalem knows; the Lord also to whom she prayed knows. Going out thence she made the ascent of Zion; a name which signifies either “citadel” or “watchtower.” This formed the city which David formerly stormed and afterwards rebuilt. Of its storming it is written, “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel”— that is, God's lion, (and indeed in those days it was extremely strong)— “the city which David stormed:” and of its rebuilding it is said, “His foundation is in the holy mountains: the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” He does not mean the gates which we see today in dust and ashes; the gates he means are those against which hell prevails not and through which the multitude of those who believe in Christ enter in. There was shown to her upholding the portico of a church the bloodstained column to which our Lord is said to have been bound when He suffered His scourging. There was shown to her also the spot where the Holy Spirit came down upon the souls of the one hundred and twenty believers, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Joel.