Demetrias

Overview

Title social-status

virgin

Date of Birth

389

Biography

Demetrias, a daughter of the illustrious Anician family of Rome, which had produced several consuls, fled the city in 410 with her mother and grandmother.1 They went to North Africa where, after some harrowing adventures described by Jerome in his letter to Demetrias, she came under the influence of Augustine and Alypius. In 413, at 14, Demetrias rejected a brilliant marriage for a life of virginity and took the veil from Aurelius, bishop of Carthage. Her mother, Juliana, and grandmother, Proba, asked major religious figures, Pelagius, who was a friend, and Jerome who knew her only by reputation, to instruct her. Both hastened to comply, Jerome interrupting his commentary on Ezekiel to write his treatise, which includes attacks on Pelagius’s thought, without naming him because of his connection to Demetrias’s family.2 Pope Leo I also wrote a treatise for Demetrias on humility and pride, after she had returned to Italy and built a church dedicated to St. Stephen at his urging.

Letters to Demetrias

A letter from Jerome (414)
A letter from Leo I, Pope (after 440)
A letter from Pelagius (413)