Letter 64: Fabiola's visit to Bethlehem had been shortened by the threatened invasion of the Huns which compelled Jerome and his friends to take refuge for a time on the seaboard of Palestine. Fabiola here took leave of her companions and set sail for Italy, but not until Jerome had completed this letter for her use (§22). It contains a mystical account of...

Letter 64: To Fabiola, On the Vestments of the High Priest (396-397 AD) [Fabiola, one of Jerome's most devoted followers among the Roman aristocracy, had visited Bethlehem but was forced to cut her stay short by a threatened invasion of the Huns, which drove Jerome and his community to take temporary refuge on the Palestinian coast. Just before Fabiola sailed for Italy, Jerome completed this letter for her — an elaborate mystical interpretation of the vestments of the Jewish High Priest, worked out with his characteristic combination of ingenuity and erudition. Similar treatises by Tertullian and Hosius, bishop of Cordova, once existed but have long since perished, making Jerome's the sole surviving example of this genre.]

To Fabiola Fabiola's visit to Bethlehem had been shortened by the threatened invasion of the Huns which compelled Jerome and his friends to take refuge for a time on the seaboard of Palestine. Fabiola here took leave of her companions and set sail for Italy, but not until Jerome had completed this letter for her use (§22). It contains a mystical account of the vestments of the High Priest worked out with Jerome's usual ingenuity and learning. Similar treatises are ascribed to Tertullian and to Hosius bishop of Cordova, but these have long since perished. Its date is 396 or 397 A.D.