379 Izvirni znanstveni članek/Article (1.01) Bogoslovni vestnik/Theological Quarterly 81 (2021) 2, 379—389 Besedilo prejeto/Received:09/2020; sprejeto/Accepted:01/2021 UDK: 27-36-1sv.Hieronim DOI: 10.34291/BV2021/02/Derhard © 2021 Derhard-Lesieur, CC BY 4.0 Gina Derhard-Lesieur »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« (Hier., Ep. 66.4.2): Metaphors of Conversion to Asceticism in Jerome’s Letter 66 »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« (Hier., Ep. 66.4.2): Metafore spreobrnjenja k asketskemu življe- nju v Hieronimovem Pismu 66 Abstract: Conversions are usually narrated in metaphors. This is also true for the conversions to asceticism present in several of Jerome’s letters. This article examines the use of metaphors of conversion in Jerome’s Letter 66 to Pam- machius. The addressee’s wife, Paulina, is presented as a young mother who died in labour. I will argue that this pregnancy may be read as a transforma- tive metaphor for Pammachius’s conversion to asceticism. The choice of this surprising metaphor, changing the relation between Paulina and Pammachius from wife and husband to mother and son, serves several intra- and extratex- tual functions. Keywords: Conversion, Metaphor, Jerome, Letters, Epistula 66 Povzetek: Spreobrnjenja so ponavadi opisana z metaforami. To velja tudi za spreo- brnjenja k asketskemu življenju, ki so navzoča v nekaterih Hieronimovih pismih. Članek obravnava rabo metafor spreobrnjenja v Hieronimovem Pismu 66, ki ga je naslovil na Pamahija. Pavlina, naslovljenčeva žena, je prikazana kot mlada mati, ki je umrla ob porodu. Predstavljena teza zagovarja idejo, da je to noseč- nost mogoče razumeti kot transformativno metaforo za Pamahijevo spreobrni- tev k asketskemu življenju. Izbira te presenetljive metafore, ki spreminja odnos med Pavlino in Pamahijem iz odnosa žena – mož v odnos mati ‒ sin, je vpeljana z različnimi nameni tako znotraj besedila kakor zunaj njega. Ključne besede: spreobrnjenje, metafora, Hieronim, pisma, Pismo 66 380 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2 1. Introduction Conversions to asceticism are pervasive in Jerome’s Letters and are particularly important in those letters dealing with a beloved person’s death. For instance, the narrator announces only to praise the deceased’s life after his or her conver- sion (Hier., Ep. 77.2.2). The conversion, almost like the baptism, seems to create a wholly new person. Jerome’s own wish to convert to a more devout Christian lifestyle free from sin manifests itself in an early letter: the Lord should save him by calling: »Hieronyme, ueni foras« (4.2.2).1 This claim is provided by the biblical story of Lazarus's resurrection (John 11:1-46, esp. 43) and is also used in Letter 38. There, Jerome describes Blesilla’s conversion to asceticism by alluding to the same story: Blesilla was lying in her metaphorical tomb, suffering from a fever, tied up by the bonds of the earthly world when Jesus exclaimed: »Blesilla, exi foras« (38.2.2). She converted to asceticism and recovered from her sickness. In other letters, individual conversions are presented using the metaphors of a survived shipwreck (77.6.1) or a change of clothes (130.5.4).2 Conversion is depicted with metaphors in all these narratives, which is not sur- prising considering that the very term ,con-versio‘ is a metaphor. In its literal sense, it means that you turn back and thus denotes a spiritual reversal. Conversion is, although it occurs in earthly life, experienced as a transcendent phenomenon. Visualizing conversion, measurable only by the status of the converted before and after the event, demands the use of metaphors from the immanent domain: »the ‚transcendental‘ (the ‚absent‘ /…/) that religious communication is based on, itself cannot be communicated and therefore must be described using ‚im- manent‘ (known, ‚present‘) means« (Krech 2012, 24).3 Metaphors of conversion enable communication about this reconstructed experience. At the same time, how conversions are narrated and which metaphors are chosen has an impact on other people’s conversion experiences.4 Therefore, the literary use of metaphors not only mirrors conversions that have taken place and creates a way of thinking about this complex phenomenon; it also triggers new perceptions of conversions. As metaphors are always selective,5 they shed light on different aspects of con- version. Thus, we can analyze how metaphors shape cultural understandings of conversion, how they conceptualize and systemize realities, and how they model extratextual and extralinguistic acts through imagination. 1 I quote Jerome’s text from Hilberg’s CSEL edition. 2 Jerome accords great importance to the differences between a worldly Christian and an ascetic lifestyle. He describes the decision to embrace asceticism with the same metaphors that are used elsewhere to describe conversions from one religion to another. Therefore, I decided to use the expression ‚conver- sion to asceticism‘ in this article. 3 Palmisano (2019) has for instance shown in a recent article how the concept of the fear of God is de- veloped through metaphors in Ben Sira. 4 For the idea that metaphors are not only part of language, but also shape thought and action, cf. Lakoff and Johnson 2003. 5 Using a metaphor, you select items of the explanans as well as of the explanandum. These virtual items are actualized in the process of metaphorization. Cf. Black 1954–1955, 287; Le Guern 1973, 19. 381Gina Derhard-Lesieur - »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« 2. Jerome, Letter 66: A Case Study This article focuses on a very original description of conversion to asceticism, the one of Pammachius, which is described in Jerome’s Letter 66. The occasion for this letter is the death of Pammachius’s wife, Paulina. She was a daughter of Jerome’s lifelong companion Paula and thus one of Eustochium’s sisters. Pammachius was a Roman aristocrat and senator, as well as a friend of Jerome.6 After Paulina’s early death in 396,7 Pammachius converted to Christian asceticism. The way his conversion is described turns out to be crucial for the structure and argumenta- tion of Jerome’s Letter 66. Therefore, I will first consider the conversion narrative in more detail before turning to the metaphor’s textual functions. My analysis will focus on how this conversion metaphor influences the structure of Letter 66. Pammachius’s conversion to asceticism is closely linked to Paulina’s death. In- deed, she is said to have died in labour. I contend that her being in labour is a metaphorical process instead of the end of a natural pregnancy. The son to whom she gives birth is the ascetic Pammachius. Jerome takes up the conversion-as-re- birth motif but develops it further and thereby alters it. I will show that Paulina’s metaphorical pregnancy develops in four steps. 2.1 Introduction of the Conversion Metaphor First, the metaphor is carefully introduced but is still ambiguous: in Hier., Ep. 66.1.2, Paulina is described as a parturiens rosa, a »rose coming into flower«, and a papillatus corymbus, a »cluster of flowers being in the bud«. The imagery of blooming flowers is a topos in obituaries and often stresses that the deceased has died young (Hier., Ep. 60.13.1–2; Paul. Nol. Ep. 13.6). Jerome continues by developing the floral image,8 but striking is the use of parturiens and corymbus. Both expressions may refer either to a flower or to the description of a woman who is about to give birth or who has just given birth to a child. In the parturiens rosa, the metaphor is created by combining the proper meaning of parturio to the metaphor of the rose, thus becoming »a rose in labour, a rose giving birth«. While the rose is undoubtedly a flower, the word corymbus can either refer to a cluster of flowers, which is the most common and the proper meaning, or that of a nipple wich refers to a woman breastfeeding a child. In consequence, both ex- pressions not only portray Paulina as a good woman who died in the prime of life but also as the mother of an infant child: the parturiens rosa hints to a pregnant woman, who is about to give birth at the moment of her death; the papillatus corymbus presents her as a breastfeeding mother. Besides the possibility of an 6 For Paulina, cf. for instance Fürst 2016, 228, and for Pammachius Fürst 2016, 223–224. 7 Nautin (1978, 547; 550) also analyses that Jerome wrote and sent his letter to this occasion in 398. Paulinus of Nola wrote his Letter 13 for the same reason in the winter of 396/7. Fürst (2016, 228) dates Paulina’s death to 396 or 397. 8 Cf. »Quis parturientem rosam et papillatum corymbum, antequam in calathum fundatur orbis et tota rubentium foliorum pandatur ambitio, inmature demessum aequis oculis marcescere uideat?« (Hier., Ep. 66.1.2) 382 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2 actual pregnancy with a miscarriage,9 this might also be read metaphorically and already hints at the birth of a metaphorical, spiritual heir. 2.2 Paulina the Mother, Pammachius the Infant Child This assumption is proved by another, much clearer passage: Jerome presents Pammachius’s conversion as a birth; he, therefore, transforms Pammachius the ascetic into a newborn child and Paulina into his mother, who is still alive when he first sees the light of day. She dies shortly afterwards (Hier., Ep. 66.3.3): »quamquam illa inito semel matrimonio nihil aliud diebus ac noctibus cogitauit, nisi ut reddito fructu nuptiarum secundum castimoniae gradum arriperet et, tanti dux femina facti (Verg., Aen. 1.364), uirum proposito suo iungeret non relinquens salutis comitem, sed expectans. dumque crebris abortiis et experta fecunditate conceptuum non desperat liberos et so- crus auiditatem maritique tristitiam praeponit inbecillitati suae, passa est aliquid de Rachelis exemplo et pro filio doloris ac dexterae (cf. Gen. 35:18) uirum desiderii sui peperit heredem.« »Though indeed she had once entered into marriage, she was only thinking day and night about seizing the second degree of chastity as soon as she should have borne the fruit of her marriage, and inducing as ›a female leader in this high venture‹, her husband to follow her course, not forsak- ing her companion in salvation, but waiting for him. She did not give up the hope of having children because she had experienced in many miscarriages that she was not infertile; she prefixed the eagerness of her mother-in-law and the sadness of her husband to her own weakness. Thus, she suffered much as Rachel suffered, although instead of bringing forth, like her, ›a son of grief and the honoured,‹10 she bore an heir who was the husband she had been longing for.« Paulina and Pammachius indeed tried to have descendants, and Jerome’s hint at Paulina’s pregnancies and miscarriages might depict reality. However, the heir Paulina finally gets does not seem to be a baby since her husband Pammachius is depicted as her heir. The word uir is used twice, each time linked to another substantive, respectively comes and heres. In the first case, it is unambiguously Pammachius who is called uir; it is thus unlikely that uir describes someone else in the second sentence. Furthermore, if you understand a real heres, you would think of a child and not an adult, a meaning uir does not take.11 Pammachius is then Paulina’s heres.12 This passage suggests that Paulina died after her heir’s birth, 9 For Paulina’s miscarriages, cf. Hier., Ep. 66.3.3 and infra. 10 Benjamin is given the name Benoni (filius doloris) by Rachel and the name Benjamin (filius dexterae) by his father Jacob (Gen. 35:18). 11 Cf. »Contrasted w.[ith] a child, etc., as implying maturity of age.« (Oxford Latin Dictionary 2012, s.v. »vir«). 12 Cf. Hier., Ep. 108.4,2 for a similar description: »Paulina /…/ sanctum et admirabilem uirum et propositi 383Gina Derhard-Lesieur - »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« thus after having influenced Pammachius towards asceticism.13 According to this passage, Paulina has had ascetic ambitions, which are stressed in this passage by the verb cogitauit. She is said to have favoured asceticism long before Pamma- chius (salutis comitem /…/ expectans),14 which explains why she is described as the mother and Pammachius as her child. At the same time, the verb cogitauit also states that, although she might have been in favour of the ascetic life, she had not embraced it: Pammachius as her spiritual heir fulfils these ambitions af- ter her death.15 Using the verb peperit in perfect tense compared to parturiens used before highlights a dynamic process, which describes Paulina’s transforma- tion from a woman in labour to a woman who has already given birth to her child. 2.3 From a Spiritual Leader to a Physical Mother Paulina’s leading role in the ideal of asceticism is underlined on the one hand using a Virgilian quotation (Verg., Aen. 1.364), which in its pretext describes Dido leading a group of Tyrians away from their home country to a new land. On the other hand, her pioneer role is highlighted by comparing her to Rachel, Benjamin’s mother, who died in labour (Gen. 35:18). This death functions as the tertium comparationis for the two women. However, the comparison only assumes its whole meaning when an heir is born. Jerome draws a parallel between Benjamin, the filius doloris ac dexterae, and Pammachius, the uir desiderii Paulinae. He alludes once more to Ra- chel and twice to the wife of Phineas, Eli’s daughter-in-law, who also died in labour while giving birth to Ichabod (1 Sam. 4:19-21).16 Paulina’s comparison to Rachel and the wife of Phineas on the one hand, and Pammachius’s association with Benja- min and Ichabod on the other, thus insist on the image of birth: the reader is en- couraged to imagine a physical birth. It is thus specific by this comparison that the et rerum suarum Pammachium reliquit heredem.« 13 Shanzer on the contrary maintains that Paulina was probably dead in childbed. But she also underlines Paulina’s »consolation that the reformed Pammachius was the offspring she had wished for.« (2009, 100–101; 101, n. 67). 14 This is presented similarly in another letter of Jerome’s (Hier., Ep. 77.10.1): »Inter laudes feminae subi- to mihi Pammachius meus exoritur. Paulina dormit, ut ipse uigilet; praecedit maritum, ut Christo famu- lum derelinquat. hic heres uxoris et hereditatis alii possessores.« 15 Cain (2013, 158) understands the quoted paragraph in the way that Pammachius »and Paulina vowed to live together in a state of lifelong marital celibacy, and [that] from that point on, until her death near the end of 396 /…/, Paulina regarded Pammachius as her heres in the faith.« (Hier., Ep. 66.3.3) Jerome mentions Paulina’s castum /…/ cubile (Hier., Ep. 66.2.1) and her cubile inmaculatum (Hier., Ep. 66.3.2, quotation from Heb. 13:4). But ‚chaste‘ does not absolutely refer to complete sexual renunciation, as states Courtray: »la chasteté n’est pas l’abstention de toute activité sexuelle. /…/ La chasteté peut être définie plus justement comme un comportement ordonné de la sexualité, comme une maîtrise qui coordonne le corps, l’esprit et l’âme dans une unité de tout l’être, comme un respect également de son état de vie.« (2009, 442) The quoted passage of Jerome’s shows on the contrary that Paulina and Pam- machius tried to have children until her death as is shown by the expressions non desperat liberos and reddito fructu. Cf. also van ‘t Westeinde 2017, 20–21. Paul. Nol., Ep. 13.3 also says that Pammachius has turned to asceticism only after Paulina’s death. 16 The narrator insists on the virtuousness and faith of these women and their sons: De prima [i.e. Rachel] Beniamin, hoc est ‚filius uirtutis ac dexterae‘, de secunda [i.e. wife of Phineas] inclitus sacerdos dei ex arcae cognomine nascitur [i.e. Ichabod]. (Hier., Ep. 66.4.1). 384 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2 metaphorical words describing conversion as birth are to be taken in their proper and not transferred meaning. This makes this metaphor of conversion grotesque since, according to worldly rules, Pammachius was Paulina’s husband and not her infant son, as is stressed by the double use of the substantive uir. 2.4 Returning to ,Reality‘ Finally, the narrator turns away from the imagery that distorts the relationship between Paulina and Pammachius, but only after alluding one last time to the metaphor of pregnancy and birth. Paulina is enumerated expressis uerbis as the third woman who has died under the same circumstances (Hier., Ep. 66.4.2): »Nobis post dormitionem somnumque Paulinae Pammachium monachum ecclesia peperit postumum et patris et coniugis nobilitate patricium, el- emosynis diuitem, humilitate sublimem.« »In our time, after Paulina has fallen asleep and passed away, the Church has born the monk Pammachius, her posthumous son, a patrician by the nobility of his parentage and marriage, rich in alms, and lofty in lowliness.« While Jerome again insists on the metaphorical birth of Pammachius after Pau- lina’s death, he still introduces a shift here. Paulina’s death causes Pammachius’s birth and thus his conversion to asceticism. After a long process, the final conver- sion to asceticism is described through the metaphor of birth as a violent process, in which the mother renounces her own life to give life to her son’s ascetic life. Of course, grammatically, the Church and not Paulina gives birth; but ,posthumous‘ can only acquire meaning when related to the death of Paulina and not to that of the Church. The vocabulary still corresponds to the imagery of pregnancy, la- bour, and birth (peperit), but since the ecclesia is subject to that verb, the image of a physical mother is less striking. As in the other occurrences of the conversion metaphor, death and birth are closely linked in this passage. In summary, it can be pointed out that in Jerome’s letter, Pammachius’s conver- sion to asceticism is described as a metaphorical birth. Pammachius is reborn as an ascetic, and Paulina is presented as the originator of this conversion to asceticism. Presenting Pammachius as Paulina’s child, and insisting on this physical image by comparing Paulina to Rachel and the wife of Phineas, seems somehow grotesque as Pammachius was her husband. This metaphor thus asks for our attention. The first and the last step link the real to the metaphorical level, carefully introducing and discontinuing the metaphor. Once the way is paved, Jerome develops his metaphor, not only turning Paulina literally into a mother and Pammachius into an infant but even challenging the reader’s imagination with the comparison to women who, according to some Old Testament passages, have physically died in labour. As soon as this metaphor has reached its climax, turning upside down the family’s relations, the metaphor is discontinued with a change in subject; it is stressed once more that Pammachius’s birth as an ascetic is due to Paulina, but the ecclesia becomes subject of the verb pario. Therefore, the reader is brought back to the real world: Pammachius is a natural infant in asceticism and needs guidance. 385Gina Derhard-Lesieur - »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« 3. The Metaphor’s Functions Inside the Letter For this reason, one may now ask why precisely this conversion metaphor is em- ployed and why it is highlighted by the four steps I have just presented; indeed, other more common metaphors would be conceivable.17 However, this metaphor serves several purposes inside the text. Therefore, I would like to show how far this metaphor impacts the letter’s argumentation, structure, and function. 3.1 Glorification of a Worldly Christian, or: Praising a Sinner Presenting Paulina as the source of Pammachius’s asceticism and many other people’s devout faith, Paulina is glorified according to the narrator’s ascetic ideal. It seems that Paulina was not the saint whom everyone wanted to praise for her Christian virtues. Consequently, it was necessary to make some detours to glori- fy her posthumously. Since she did not embrace the ascetic life herself, as shown above, this metaphor presenting her as the origin of other people’s conversions is needed to glorify her according to ascetic standards. Although she was a religious Christian, she did not excel in any particular Chris- tian virtue or action, as the narrator states himself when praising her temperantia, her ,moderation‘.18 This argument is supported by the fact that Paulina is never praised on her own,19 but always together with her family: her mother Paula, her sister Eustochium and her husband Pammachius: true ascetics in the narrator’s eyes.20 Before recognizing the conversion metaphor, one might have considered these long explanations about the family’s virtues as part of panegyrical res ex- ternae.21 One now might ask whether they might be due to the narrator’s embar- rassment that he has to praise Paulina’s mediocrity.22 The glorification of Paulina’s family extends the praises on her person. One might even go further: The narrator hints at Paulina’s expensive clothes and jewellery23 and voluntarily presents Paulina more as a sinner than a saint by high- 17 One may for example think about metaphors that present the transition from dirt to cleanness, from one place or path to another, from darkness to light, from blindness to strength of vision. 18 Cf. Hier., Ep. 66.3.1–2. Cf. Favez for this thought: »Certes, celle-ci avait été une croyante sincère, mais /…/ elle avait passé discrète et fervente, tout entière à ses devoirs dʼépouse chrétienne, sans que rien lʼeût signalée spécialement à lʼattention de ses contemporains.« (1937, 27). 19 The only exception is the flower metaphor in Hier., Ep. 66.1.2, which is a topos of obituaries; cf. supra. 20 For instance, these four family members are linked to the Stoic cardinal virtues prudentia, iustitia, fortitudo, and temperantia in Hier., Ep. 66.3.1. 21 Jerome talks about the rhetoricians’ precepts of praising the deceased ancestors for example in Hier., Ep. 60.8.1; 77.2.3. 22 This also seems to be the reason why Jerome emphasizes that Paulina wanted to have descendants only to »produce virgins for Christ (ut Christo uirgines pareret).« (Hier., Ep. 66.3.3). 23 Cf. »Ardentes gemmae, quibus ante collum et facies ornabatur, egentium uentres saturant; uestes se- ricae et aurum in fila lentescens in mollia lanarum uestimenta mutata sunt, quibus repellatur frigus, non quibus nudetur ambitio; deliciarum quondam supellectilem uirtus insumit.« (Hier., Ep. 66.5.1) Paulinus of Nola (Paul. Nol., Ep. 13.28) also mentions Paulina’s valuable clothes and jewelry to contrast them with the poor whom Pammachius feeds with their returns (Shanzer 2009, 101). Cain (2013, 324) understands Jerome’s passage in the way that Paulina herself had got rid of her valuable clothes and 386 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2 lighting Pammachius’s posthumous alms as a way of extinguishing Paulina’s sins.24 In this context, it is also essential to consider that Jerome refers back to this letter twice, respectively praising Pammachius through positive words and not Paulina.25 Despite these points, the conversion metaphor enables some panegyrics on Paulina in this letter since she is presented as the origin of other people’s conver- sions. Moreover, the metaphor allows for the comparison with two biblical women who died in labour, which elevates Paulina into the biblical realm and thus into the excellent line of God’s good servants. 3.2 Praise of Pammachius’s Ascetic Actions Second, the image of a metaphorical birth enables a transition from Paulina’s to Pammachius’s glorification: Pammachius’s new ascetic lifestyle can be praised this way. With this association, Jerome links the laudes for Paulina to the laudes for Pammachius. The letter is announced as treating the death of a beloved person; the narrator calls himself a consolator and announces a commemoratio.26 Thus, the reader might expect praises of the deceased. Nevertheless, the praises of the addressee Pammachius are much more important by their content and scale than those of the deceased Paulina. Namely, chapters 4 to 7 glorify Pammachius’s efforts to convert more Christians to asceticism (Hier., Ep. 66.4.3–66.5.1),27 his alms for the sick and the poor (66.5.2) that function as flowers on Paulina’s tomb (66.5.3–4), his indifference about the other senators’ opinions when he arrives in his monastic garb in the Senate (66.6.1–2) and his high reputation as ascetic (66.7.1–3). By presenting Pammachius as Paulina’s spiritual heir, the glorificati- on of Pammachius reflects on Paulina and makes the transition to Pammachius’s praises natural and effortless. jewelry, but the returns’ benefits are mentioned in the context of Pammachius’s actions for the poor, which is even clearer in Paulinus of Nola’s passage. 24 Cf. »Pammachius noster sanctam fauillam ossaque ueneranda elemosynae balsamis rigat. his pigmen- tis atque odoribus fouet cineres quiescentes sciens scriptum: ›sicut aqua extinguet ignem, sic elemosyna peccata‹ (*Eccli. 3:30).« (Hier., Ep. 66.5.3) Cf. Shanzer’s explication of this passage: »this may be the first explicitly documented example of post mortem alms offered by another (i.e. surrogate alms) to extin- guish the sins of one deceased.« (2009, 100) Cf. Paul. Nol., Ep. 13.3; 13.11. This is implicitly stated in Hier., Ep. 66.5.4: »Gaudet huiusce modi filiae mater herede.« Shanzer explains that »the daughter who inherits is the ecclesia pauperum« (2009, 99, n. 56). Paulina must then be the mater who rejoices about the alms. 25 Cf. »Ante hoc ferme biennium Pammachio meo pro subita peregrinatione Paulinae breuem epistulam dedi erubescens ad disertissimum uirum plura loqui et ei sua ingerere, ne non tam consolari amicum uiderer, quam stulta iactantia docere perfectum.« (Hier., Ep. 77.1.1) »Paulinam, quae sanctum et ad- mirabilem uirum et propositi et rerum suarum Pammachium reliquit heredem, ad quem super obitu eius paruum libellum edidimus.« (Hier., Ep. 108.4.2) Both epistula and libellus refer to Hier., Ep. 66. 26 Cf. »Ita et ego, serus consolator, qui inportune per biennium tacui, uereor, ne nunc inportunius loquar et adtrectans uulnus pectoris tui, quod tempore et ratione curatum est, commemoratione exulcerem.« (Hier., Ep. 66.1.1) 27 Ambrose (Patr. 12.57) refers to Rachel’s death and to the name ‚filius doloris‘ when he links the apostle Paul to his ancestor Benjamin and describes the former’s efforts to convert his contemporaries to Christianity. We may here see a parallel to Pammachius’s efforts to move his contemporaries to an ascetic Christian life. 387Gina Derhard-Lesieur - »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« 3.3 Paving the Way for Pammachius’s Exhortations Third, depicting Pammachius’s ascetic actions as Paulina’s ambitions that she co- uld not complete in her lifetime means exhorting and encouraging Pammachius to continue this way of life. As her posthumous heir, he should continue walking on the path she had decided on before her death. The rest of the letter includes a long exhortatory part, which is not, as might be expected in a letter written on the occasion of a death, on managing grief, but rather on the ascetic lifestyle.28 This might also be the reason why the narrator is insisting a lot on Paulina’s fa- mily: He shows his addressee that he can follow the exemplary lives of Paula and Eustochium. This might encourage and exhort Pammachius (and other readers) to asceticism since Paula and Eustochium are presented as exempla for this lifestyle. It perfectly fits the image of the infant ascetic, as Pammachius is depicted in the conversion metaphor, who still must be provided with sustenance for his faith and religious lifestyle.29 These nourishing instructions are provided by Jerome’s letter. 3.4 A Broader Audience and a Wider Impact Fourth, the metaphor transforms traditional aristocratic values, such as wealth and male heirs, into Christian ascetic ones, such as almsgiving and producing children in the faith (Hier., Ep. 66.4.3): »Tales Paulina morte sua nobis liberos edidit, quos uiuens cupiuerat pos- sidere. ›Laetare, sterilis, quae non paris, erumpe et clama, quae non par- turis‹ (Gal. 4:27; Is. 54:1), quoniam, quot Romae pauperes sunt, tot filios repente genuisti.« »These are the children that Paulina has given birth to for us in her death, whom she had desired to have in her lifetime. ›Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labour!‹,30 because you have brought forth all of a sudden as many sons as there are poor people in Rome.« This passage explains that the new ascetic ideal subverts the old aristocratic wish of descendants. Spiritual children replace those related by blood; inheritance is given not to the heirs in the bloodline but to the poor. Jerome visualizes these transformations by employing his conversion metaphor. Paulina and Pammachius 28 Cf. Hier., Ep. 66.8–13. Here one also has to take into consideration that this letter has been written two years after Paulina’s death and that Pammachius has already overcome his grief at the time when Je- rome was writing his letter. Cf. Hier., Ep. 66.1.1. 29 In the exhortatory part of the letter, there is a long allegory that develops some metaphors of the Song of Songs (cf. Hier., Ep. 66.10.1–2). Within this allegory, the topic of a faith that has to be nourished and starts its being as an infant that grows slowly is repeated: »Ibi ei da mamillas tuas, sugat de erudito pectore et requiescat ›inter medios cleros, pinnae deargentatae columbae et interiora eius in fulgore auri‹ (Ps. 67:14). Paruulus iste et puer, qui butyro et melle saginatur, qui inter caseatos nutritus est montes, cito crescit in iuuenem, uelociter in te hostes spoliat, mature praedatur Damascum et regem uincit Assyrium.« (Hier., Ep. 66.10.2). 30 Translation taken from the English Standard Version. 388 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2 thus become models for the Roman world of their time. According to the pas- sage, Paulina’s heir has been multiplied in the following months since Pammachius has not only given alms to the poor but has also brought his faith to them. These people are here presented as Paulina’s children (liberi, filii).31 4. Conclusion The example of Jerome’s Letter 66 illustrates in many ways how the choice of metaphor generates meaning. This letter presents Pammachius’s conversion to asceticism as a birth, selecting and insisting on transferring the ascetic ideal from Paulina to Pammachius and thus on Pammachius’s spiritual dependence on Pau- lina. It is irrelevant whether this presentation depicts reality: More importantly, it influences the letter’s argumentation and structure and therefore plays a vital role in the transmission and promulgation of Jerome’s ascetic ideal. The conversion metaphors chosen by Jerome, in general, refer to a variety of worldly objects and events. With these, different aspects of conversion are se- lected. The depiction of conversion is therefore not a homogenous field. Meta- phors present a broad panorama of views on this complex phenomenon. As a result, metaphors of conversion do not only shape our perception of Jerome’s contemporaries more than 1600 years after their death but, more importantly, have always been a way of narrating and alternating events. Metaphors provide a graspable explanation for a complex phenomenon. Abbreviations Ambr., Patr. – Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De patriarchis. Hier., Ep. – Hieronymus, Epistulae [Hilberg 1996]. Paul. Nol., Ep. – Paulinus Nolanus, Epistulae. Ser., Med. – Q. Serenus, Liber medicinalis. ThLL – Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Verg., Aen. –Vergilius, Aeneis. 31 In the next chapter, the idea that sick people claim that Pammachius and Paulina brought them relief, is repeated: »Ille caecus /…/ clamitans heres Paulinae, coheres Pammachii est.« (Hier., Ep. 66.5.1) 389Gina Derhard-Lesieur - »Monachum ecclesia peperit postumum« References Primary source Hilberg, Isidorus, ed. 1996. Hieronymus: Epistulae. CSEL 54, 55 and 56/1. Vienna: Verlag der Öster- reichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Secondary sources Black, Max. 1954–1955. Metaphor. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 55:273–294. Cain, Andrew. 2013. Jerome’s Epitaph on Paula: a commentary on the Epitaphium sanctae Pau- lae. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Courtray, Régis. 2009. La ‚chaste Suzanne‘ chez les Pères latins. Latomus 68:442–457. Favez, Charles. 1937. La consolation latine chré- tienne. Paris: Vrin. Fürst, Alfons. 2016. Hieronymus: Askese und Wis- senschaft in der Spätantike. Freiburg im Breis- gau: Herder. Krech, Volkhard. 2012. Dynamics in the history of religions – preliminary considerations on aspects of a research programme. In: Volkhard Krech and Marion Steinicke, eds. Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Eu- rope, 15–70. Leiden: Brill. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 2003. Meta- phors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Le Guern, Michel. 1973. Sémantique de la méta- phore et de la métonymie. Paris: Larousse. Nautin, Pierre. 1978. La date de la mort de Pau- line, de l’épître 66 de Jérôme et de l’épître 13 de Paulin de Nole. Augustinianum 18:547–550. https://doi.org/10.5840/agstm197818360 Palmisano, Maria Carmela. 2019. Studio delle im- magini e delle metafore sul timore del Signore in Ben Sira [The Study of Images and Meta- phors on the Fear of the Lord in Ben Sira]. Bo- goslovni vestnik 79, no. 4:891–907. https://doi. org/10.34291/bv2019/04/palmisano Shanzer, Danuta. 2009. Jerome, Tobit, alms, and the Vita aeterna. In: Andrew Jason Cain and Josef Lössl, eds. Jerome of Stridon: his life, writ- ings and legacy, 87–103. Aldershot: Ashgate. Van ʼt Westeinde, Jessica. 2017. Jerome and the Christianus perfectus: a transformed Roman noble man? In: Markus Vinzent, ed. Papers pre- sented at the Seventeenth International Confer- ence on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2015. Vol. 23, From the fourth century onwards (Latin Writers), 17–36. Studia Patristica 97. Leuven: Peeters.