Blaesilla

Eventually, Jerome left Rome, with Blaesilla's mother and sister, to live as an ascetic in the Holy Land.

[6] Jerome, who advocated asceticism and extreme fasting as a spiritual practice because he believed that it helped his followers control their flesh and focus more on God, chastised her for "her frivolous life".

[2] Writer Joan Carroll Cruz said that Blaesilla had "yield[ed] to the promptings of grace"[1] and chose to spend "the rest of her short life in great austerity".

[4] Jerome, speaking about her intellectual talent, said: "Who can recall without a sigh the earnestness of her prayers, the brilliancy of her conversation, the tenacity of her memory, and the quickness of her intellect?

[8] Historians Finley Hooper and Matthew Schwartz reported that Blaesilla's death caused "bitter controversy" in Rome.

Shortly after the pope's death, an inquiry was brought questioning the relationship between Jerome and Paula and he was forced to leave his position.

[4] Jerome spent the last 34 years of his life living as an ascetic supported by Paula, who founded a double monastery near Bethlehem.

Salisbury called Blaesilla "this ancient woman who starved herself in death in the name of Christ",[4] and writer Leonard Shlain stated that she "died from anorexia".

[12] Hooper and Schwartz were critical of Jerome, stating that his beliefs about asceticism and monasticism demonstrated an attitude that would prevail in Christianity for centuries.

[14] They also stated that the refusal of food offered ascetics like Blaesella "a spiritual transcendence",[14] while the goal for modern patients was the pursuit of the "perfect body".