September 30
Saints of the Day...and Events
 

St. Jerome, 347-419, Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius; Girolamo; Hieronymus; Jeronimo; Man of the Bible
The Doctor of the Church and Father of the Church who gave us the Vulgate, a Congregation, and used his bad temper to conquer himself in Christ and to fight for Christ and His Church against the heretics

    He was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He 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. St. Augustine said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known."

    St. Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to the vulgar language, at that time the Latin, which came to be called the Vulgate. The Council of Trent 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.
    Studied in Rome. Lawyer. Converted in theory, and baptised in 365, he began his study of theology, and then had a true conversion.

    Monk. Lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts. Reported to have drawn a thorn from a lion's paw; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years.
    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. always with a rock on his chest, making penance!
    Once Jesus asked him: Jerome give your accomplishments. Yes Lord, here it is, the Vulgate. Give me more, Jerome. Yes, this Congregation of Holy Ladies. More Jerome, give me more... Jerome was hesitant, he didn't know what else to give... Jerome, says Jesus, give me your sins! I paid for them!

    Priest. Student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen. Secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned him to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result of his 30 years of work was the Vulgate translation, which is still in use.

    Founded a Congregation: Friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip, Jerome left Rome to return to the desert solitude. Lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land, in Bethlehem, as a semi-recluse.

    Wrote translations of Origen, histories, biographies, and much more. Constant defender of Christ and His Church.  Father of the Church. Doctor of the Church with Augustine, Gregory the Great and Ambrose as one of the four key doctors of the Western Church.

    Jerome used to say, the enemy of Christ is my enemy, and I want him to know it.
    Yes, if Jerome with his temper became a great Saint, you and I can also be.

Born 347 at Strido, Dalmatia (in the former Yugoslavia).
Died 419; relics at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome
Images Gallery of images of Saint Jerome [46 images, 759 kb]
Additional Information
    http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj06.htm
    http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1154
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome
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Writings
Letter to Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem
Letter to Eustochium
Life of Saint Hilarion
Lives of Illustrious Men (online pages)
Lives of Illustrious Men (download compiled offline version)
Google Directory: Vulgate
Google Directory: Other Writings
Readings:
What Jerome is ignorant of, no man has ever known. Saint Augustine

In the remotest part of a wild and stony desert, burnt up with the heat of the scorching sun so that it frightens even the monks that inhabit it, I seemed to myself to be in the midst of the delights and crowds of Rome. In exile and prison to which for the fear of hell I had voluntarily condemned myself, I many times imagined myself witnessing the dancing of the Roman maidens as if I had been in the midst of them: in my cold body and in my parched-up flesh, which seemed dead before its death, passion able to live. Alone with this enemy, I threw myself in spirit at the feet of Jesus, watering them with my tears, and I tamed my flesh by fasting whole weeks. I am not ashamed to disclose my temptations, but I grieve that I am not now what I then was. Saint Jerome's letter to Saint Eustochium

The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from the progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it should be held as certain that the greater violence we shall do ourselves in mortification, the greater advance we shall make in perfection. Saint Jerome

You say in your book that while we live we are able to pray for each other, but afterwards when we have died, the prayer of no person for another can be heard.... But if the apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, at a time when they ought still be solicitous about themselves, how much more will they do so after their crowns, victories, and triumphs? Jerome Against Vigilantius, 406AD

    I interpret as I should, following the command of Christ: "Search the Scriptures," and "Seek and you shall find." For if, as Paul says, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and if the man who does not know Scripture does not know the power and wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.
    No one should think that I mean to explain the entire subject matter of this great book of the prophet Isaiah in one brief sermon, since it contains all the mysteries of the lord. It prophesies that Emmanuel is to be born of a virgin and accomplish marvelous works and signs. It predicts his death, burial and resurrection from the dead as the Savior of all men. Whatever is proper to holy Scripture, whatever can be expressed in human language and understood by the human mind, is contained in the book of Isaiah. -Jerome: from a commentary on Isaiah

    When the Latin Fathers are represented in a group, Saint Jerome is sometimes in a cardinal's dress and hat, although cardinals were not known until three centuries later than his time, but as the other Fathers held exalted positions in the Church, and were represented in ecclesiastical costumes, and as Saint Jerome held a dignified office in the court of Pope Dalmasius, it seemed fitting to picture him as a cardinal.
    The Venetian painters frequently represented him in a full scarlet robe, with a hood thrown over the head. When thus habited, his symbol was a church in his hand, emblematic of his importance to the universal Church.
    Saint Jerome is also seen as a penitent, or again, with a book and pen, attended by a lion. As a penitent, he is a wretched old man, scantily clothed, with a bald head and neglected beard, a most unattractive figure.
    When he is represented as translating the Scriptures, he is in a cell or a cave, clothed in a somber colored robe, and is writing, or gazing upward for inspiration. In a few instances, an angel is dictating to him. - from Saints in Art, by Clara Irskine Clement
 

Events of September 30 - Saints of September 30:

Art Galleries of Religions and Christianity

The Jerome Bible Commentary, book by book
1,093 prophecies and types of the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus and His Church

Other Web Sites of Dr. Dominguez
(over 300 in English and Spanish)

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