Letter 64: Fabiola's visit to Bethlehem had been shortened by the threatened invasion of the Huns which compelled Jerome and his friends to take refuge for a time on the seaboard of Palestine. Fabiola here took leave of her companions and set sail for Italy, but not until Jerome had completed this letter for her use (§22). It contains a mystical account of...
Letter 64: To Fabiola, On the Vestments of the High Priest (396-397 AD)
[Fabiola, one of Jerome's most devoted followers among the Roman aristocracy, had visited Bethlehem but was forced to cut her stay short by a threatened invasion of the Huns, which drove Jerome and his community to take temporary refuge on the Palestinian coast. Just before Fabiola sailed for Italy, Jerome completed this letter for her — an elaborate mystical interpretation of the vestments of the Jewish High Priest, worked out with his characteristic combination of ingenuity and erudition. Similar treatises by Tertullian and Hosius, bishop of Cordova, once existed but have long since perished, making Jerome's the sole surviving example of this genre.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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A treatise on the Forty-two Mansions or Halting-places of the Israelites, originally intended for Fabiola but not completed until after her death. Sent to Oceanus along with the preceding letter. These Mansions are made an emblem of the Christian's pilgrimage, the true Hebrew hastening to pass from earth to heaven.
1. Whether I am to regard it as the effect of what I may call your flattering language, or whether the thing be really so, is a point which I am unable to decide. For the impression was sudden, and I am not yet resolved how far it deserves to be believed.