Saint Fabiola

Fabiola belonged to the noble Fabian family of Rome. After divorcing an abusive husband, she remarried while he was still alive; when her second husband died, she did public penance at the Lateran Basilica before the whole Church. She then gave her fortune to the poor and, according to Saint Jerome, founded the first public hospital in Rome, where she herself washed and cared for the sick that others avoided. She visited Jerome in Bethlehem, worked with Saint Pammachius on a hospice for pilgrims at Porto, and died in Rome around 399.

Saint Jerome wrote a moving letter in her memory, saying that all Rome turned out for her funeral. Cardinal Wiseman's 19th-century novel "Fabiola" made her name famous.