Saint Eustochium. Born Eustochium Julia at Rome, she was the daughter of Paula and is also venerated as a saint and was an early Desert Mother. She was the third of four daughters of the Roman Senator Toxotius, for whom Jerome made a number of disputable claims of ancestry. After the death of her husband around 380 Paula and her daughter Eustochium lived in Rome as austere a life as the fathers of the desert. Eustochium had three sisters, Blaesilla, Paulina, and Rufina, and a brother, Toxotius.
When Jerome came to Rome from Palestine in 382, they put themselves under his spiritual guidance. Hymettius, an uncle of Eustochium, and his wife Praetextata tried to persuade the youthful Eustochium to give up her austere life and enjoy the pleasures of the world, but all their attempts were futile. About the year 384 she made a vow of perpetual virginity, on which occasion Jerome addressed to her his celebrated letter De custodia virginitatis. A year later Jerome returned to Palestine and soon after was followed to the Orient by Paula and Eustochium.