Who was the one designated mother in the letters of Paul?

       Rufus' mother (Rom. 16:13) one of those to whom Paul sent salutations in his letter to the Romans, written from Corinth and probably carried by Phebe, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea near Corinth.
       "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord," Paul wrote, "and his mother and mine." The last phrase referred, of course, to his spiritual relationship in the early Christian Church with Rufus' mother. The phrase shows us that she was a spiritually minded woman, probably one of the most faithful workers in this early church.
       In Paul's long list of salutations in this chapter, this is the only woman designated as a mother.