A Lady In Gaul Hedibia

Hedibia (EDIBIA), a lady in Gaul, who corresponded with St. Jerome (then at Bethlehem) c. 405. She was descended from the Druids, and held the hereditary office of priests of Belen (= Apollo) at Bayeux. Her grandfather and father (if majores is to be taken strictly) Patera and Delphidius (the names being in each case derived from their office) were remarkable men. Of Patera, Jerome says in his Chronicle , under a.d. 339, "Patera rhetor Romae gloriosissime docet." Delphidius was a writer in prose and verse and a celebrated advocate. Ammianus Marcellinus (xviii. 1) tells of his pleading before the emperor Julian. Both became professors at Bordeaux (Ausonius, Carmen , Prof. Burd. iv. and v.). The wife and daughter of Delphidius became entangled in the Zoroastrian teaching of Priscillian, and suffered death in the persecution of his followers (Sulp. Sev. Hist. Sac. ii. 63, 64; Prosper Aquit. Chron.  ; Auson. Carmen , v.). Hedibia was a diligent student of Scripture, and, finding no one to assist her, sent, by her friend Apodemius, a list of questions to Jerome. He answered them in a long letter ( Ep. 120, ed. Vall.). We hear of her again as a friend of Artemia, wife of Rusticus, on whose account she again wrote to Jerome ( Ep. 122, ed. Vall.).

[W.H.F.]