SAINT JEROME

 A BRIEF ON SAINT JEROME SEPTEMBER 30 (345  420)

Also known as Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius; Girolamo, Hieronymus, Jerom; Man of the Bible

Additional Memorial: 9 May (translation of relics)

He was born to a rich pagan family in 345 (347) AD at Strido, Dalmatia. Jerome led a wild and misspent youth. Studied in Rome, Italy, and became a lawyer. He converted to Christianity and joined the Church in theory, and was baptized in 365 AD, but it was only when he began his study of theology that he had a true conversion and the faith became integral to his life.

He became a monk, then, needing isolation for his study of Scripture; he lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts. There he is reported to have drawn a thorn from the paw of a lion; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years.

He was a Priest; Student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen; Secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned Jerome to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result was 30 years of work which we know as the Vulgate translation, the standard Latin version for over a millenium, and which is still in use today. 

He was a friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip that Jerome left Rome to return to desert solitude. He lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land (Jerusalem) as a semi-recluse, writing and translating works of history, biography, the writings of Origen, and much more. He is a Doctor of the Church and Father of the Church. Since his own time, he has been associated in the popular mind with scrolls, writing, cataloging, translating, which led to those who work in such fields taking him as their patron, a man who knew their lives and problems.

Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is frequently remembered for his bad temper! It is true that he had a very bad temper and could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God and his son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and Saint Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen.

He was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. Jerome also wrote commentaries which are a great source of scriptural inspiration for us today. He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monk, bishop, and pope. Saint Augustine said of him, What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.

MORE ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

Saint Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church is fortunate. As a modern scholar says, No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work. The Council of Trent called for a new and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text to be used in the Church.

In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared himself well. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic. He began his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia. After his preliminary education, he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very much in evidence. He spent several years in each place, always trying to find the very best teachers. He once served as private secretary to Pope Damasus I.

After these preparatory studies, he traveled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of the life of Christ with an outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance, and study. Finally, he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. Jerome died in 419 AD of natural causes, in Bethlehem, and the remains of his body (that is, his relics) now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Italy.

LESSON

Jerome was a strong, outspoken man. He had the virtues and the unpleasant fruits of being a fearless critic and all the usual moral problems of a man. He was, as someone has said, no admirer of moderation whether in virtue or against evil. He was swift to anger, but also swift to feel remorse, even more severe on his own shortcomings than on those of others. A pope is said to have remarked, on seeing a picture of Jerome striking his breast with a stone, You do well to carry that stone, for without it the Church would never have canonized you (Butlers Lives of the Saints).

Patron Saints of archeologists; archivists; Bible scholars; librarians; libraries; schoolchildren; students; translators; Saint-Jérôme City of Québec;  Saint-Jérôme diocese of Quebec; and Taos Indian Pueblo.

Compiled by Fr UTAZI Prince Marie Benignus Zereuwa