Eustochium
early Christian saint
Feast: 28 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Eustochium Julia was born at Rome about 368, a daughter of the senator Toxotius and St. Paula. After her father's death she and her mother lived a very austere life in Rome under St. Jerome's guidance, and about 384 she vowed perpetual virginity; Jerome wrote his famous letter on virginity for her.
She followed Jerome to the East with her mother, and at Bethlehem they built monasteries for men and women near the place of Christ's birth. She knew Latin and Greek and could read the Scriptures in Hebrew, and several of Jerome's commentaries were written at her urging. After Paula's death in 404 she led the nuns, and she died soon after the monasteries were attacked and pillaged in 417. Her feast is 28 September.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Roman noblewoman who led the nuns of Bethlehem and inspired St. Jerome's biblical work.
Connected on this site
- Blaesilla Saint Brother or sister
- Paula of Rome Saint Parent, Mother
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Eustochium Julia
- Roman Martyrology, 28 September (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno)
- Wikidata Q442396 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Eustochium (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.