ST. LEA. WIDOW

SHE was a rich Roman lady; after the death of her husband she mortified her flesh by wearing rough sackcloth, passed whole nights in prayer, and by humility seemed every one’s menial servant. She died in 384, and is honored on this day in the Roman Martyrology. St. Jerom makes an elegant comparison between her death and that of Prætextatus, a heathen, who was that year appointed consul, but snatched away by death at the same time. See St. Jerom, Ep. 20, (olim 24,) to Marcella, t. 4, p. 51, Ed. Ben.