St. Jerome

Today the Church celebrates the life St. Jerome. He was born around AD 342 and received a good education as a youth. However, he rejected his Christian upbringing to behave as he pleased. It’s said that his guilt moved him to visit the catacombs in Rome. The crypts moved him to improve his lifestyle. He was baptized in AD 366 as a young man.

Jerome was attracted to the monastic life and began traveling to places like Italy, Gaul, Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. He lived outside Antioch as a hermit.

Many people are aware that Jerome had quite the intellect. He had tremendous skills with translation. The Church asked him to be a priest, but he preferred to remain aloof from politics and live as a monk. Eventually, however, he was ordained with the desire that he could practice the faith in a quiet way.

In AD 382, he visited Rome and Pope Damasus I (305 – 384) forced him to stay and serve him as his secretary. The pope sent him to work on translating the Bible. Jerome was a master at languages, which included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic.

When Pope Damasus I died (AD 384), Jerome returned to the Holy Land and continued translating the Bible. A couple of women helped him establish a monastery in Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, he wrote letters arguing for the faith. From his letters, one can see that he had a pretty intense personality. He also had a bit of a temper. At times, he could be quite harsh and sarcastic with those who disagreed with him. 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.”

However, God eventually used that intensity to help spread the gospel. Jerome is most well known for translating the Sacred Scriptures to Latin. The Latin translation is known as the Vulgate and with the Council of Trent it became the authentic text of the Church. Today, it remains the standard Latin translation of the Scriptures.

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Jerome gave the famous saying that “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” In other words, if you do not know Sacred Scripture, you really don’t know Christ.

Jerome spent the last 34 years of his life living in the cave believed to be the birthplace of Christ. In this way, he wanted to be close to Christ. He died in AD 420 and was subsequently canonized. He is the patron saint of archeologists, biblical scholars, students, and translators.

Interestingly, St. Jerome was one of the favorite subjects to paint during the Middle Ages. In some of the paintings, he is depicted with an hourglass, which symbolizes that life is so fleeting.

St. Jerome is also depicted with a lion because of a legend that he healed a wounded lion that had a thorn in its paw. Maybe it reminded him of displaying compassion instead of conquering by brute force. And finally, St. Jerome is often depicted studying with a book because of the fact that he loved to study.

The saint whom we celebrate today can certainly teach us that despite our shortcomings, God can use them for furthering his kingdom. Jerome had a strong will and a short temper. Some of us certainly can identify with him in that. However, look at how much God did through him! God certainly can write straight with crooked lines.

Whatever your struggles, do not be afraid to ask the Lord to continue to heal them and work through them. If you don’t believe this is possible, look to Jerome and ask for his intercession. St. Jerome, biblical scholar and lover of Christ, pray for us!

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