Truly St. Jerome was not exaggerating when in the fourth century he said of this woman, “Hungering and thirsting, her spirit had died within her.” Furthermore, Peter Chrysologus, the fifth century Bishop of Ravenna, wrote of her, “Through many years her body has been an arena of suffering.”[6] And yet, this woman, racked with pain and shame and despair, ostracized, forgotten, and invisible, dares to hope when she hears about Jesus.