Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Lea, Patroness of all Widows l March 22

Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Lea, Patroness of all Widows l March 22 Our saint for today is St. Lea, a widow. Although she is not well-known like many other figures of devotion in our contemporary time, she is considered extraordinary because she left her great wealth behind, entered consecrated life and attained great holiness through prayer and penances. There is nothing biographical written about her. We will only know that through a letter, a testimony of her friend, St. Jerome, the scholarly Latin translator of the Bible (the Vulgate). St. Jerome wrote about Lea in 384, when she died while reciting Psalm 73. It is said that after the death of her husband Lea was left with great fortunes. She gave up her high social standing and donated all her riches to the needy and led a poor and austere life. The letter of St. Jerome was addressed to Marcella, a mutual friend, another aristocratic Roman who left her life of nobility after she was widowed in order to serve the Lord. St. Jerome praised Lea so as “To hail with joy the release of a soul which has trampled Satan underfoot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of tranquility.” He described Lea as a very innocent and humble person: “She was accounted the servant of all… She was careless of her dress, neglected her hair, and ate only the coarsest food. Still, in all that she did, she avoided ostentation that she might not have a reward in this world.” St. Jerome continues by saying that Lea stopped beautifying her face and body with any cosmetics and avoided adorning her head with shining pearls. She gave up her beautiful dwelling and occupied a small corner in a poor house with only the most necessary furniture. She also changed her mode of speaking and ceased to be like one who commands in order to be obeyed. According to St. Jerome, the conversion of Lea to the Lord was so complete. When she became superior of a monastery, she acted and showed herself a true mother to the other Sisters. She wore sackcloth instead of a soft and comfortable garment, spent long hours of prayer even during the night. In the letter, St. Jerome also retells Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man, with Lea in the place of the poor and suffering beggar. He also compares her with a rich consul who had wallowed in wealth and in the end found himself in agony in the next life. The letter ends with St.  Jerome urging Marcella to imitate the examples of Lea: “We must not allow money, position, comforts, pleasures to weigh us down, or lean upon the staff of worldly power. We must not seek to possess both Christ and the world. No; things eternal must take the place of things transitory; and since, physically speaking, we daily anticipate death, if we wish for immortality, we must realize that we are but mortal. Lea, who seemed poor, a woman of austerity, prayer and penances and of little worth in the world and whose life was accounted madness triumphs in heaven. Lea is welcomed into the choirs of angels, clothed in her triumphal robe and comforted in the bosom of Abraham.” The feast day of St. Lea is celebrated on March 22. She is the patroness of widows. · Virtues are humility, simplicity, innocence, austerities, great penances and detachmen “Heavenly Father, how attractive are the things of this world and how easily we are caught up by power, position, comfort, pleasure, popularity, money and honor. Protect us and allow us to be committed to heavenly things in imitation of the evangelical perfection followed by St. Lea. Amen.”