Feast of St Jerome

September 30: Feast of St Jerome

Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ ~ St Jerome

 

September 30th is the feast of St Jerome, doctor of the Church and translator of the Holy Bible, and the Church honours him as the patron saint of translators, librarians, and scholars

His is an inspiring story of how each step of his life, he is given opportunities that prepare him for the purpose that God made him, which was to bring the Holy Scriptures to the masses.

In order to be able to do such work, St Jerome had to first become a polyglot and speak Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic (aka Biblical Aramaic that Christ himself spoke; as we will see he was given ample opportunity to prepare himself well. On the basis of the original Greek and Hebrew texts, and thanks to the comparison with previous versions, he revised the four Gospels in Latin, then the Psalter and a large part of the Old Testament. Taking into account the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the Septuagint, the classical Greek version of the Old Testament that dates back to pre-Christian times, as well as the earlier Latin versions.

 

St Jerome was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, a common language of the Western Roman empire. His translation is known as the 'Vulgate'. which comes from the Latin vulgata editio, meaning "commonly used" or "popular edition." The word vulgus means "the common people," so the name refers to a Bible in the everyday language of ordinary people.

 

The Council of Trent in 1546 used a revised and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text of the Catholic Church, and it remained the Church's authoritative Bible for centuries.

 

St Jerome also wrote commentaries which are a great source of scriptural inspiration for us today. He was an avid student, a learned scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monks, bishops, and the Pope. Saint Augustine said of him, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.”

St Jerome was born Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus around 342 AD, in Stridon, Dalmatia (modern day Croatia/Slovenia) As a young man he had a hunger for knowledge, so he dedicated himself to languages, learning Latin and Greek. After his preliminary education, he went to Rome, the centre of learning at that time. Most of all he loved reading the Roman and Greek philosophers such as Cicero to which he devoted all his time and energy. But he led a sinful life, that was until 366 AD when he was baptised a Christian by Pope Liberius. He focussed his attention to theological matters and travelled next to Trier, Germany where there were schools for him to gain ecclesiastical training.

In 370 AD he returned closer home to a monastery at Aquileia overseen by Bishop St. Valerian, who had attracted some of the greatest minds in Christendom. While in Aquileia, St Jerome met Rufinus and the two men became friends. Rufinis was a monk who was renowned for his translations of Greek works into Latin. St Jerome himself was developing his skills as a translator, a skill he developed during his time in the Roman catacombs, translating the inscriptions on the tombs. Following his time in Aquileia, St Jerome travelled next to Treves, Gaul where he began to translate books for his own use. His goal was to build a personal library.

In 374, St Jerome finally reached Antioch, after making several lengthy stops along the way. While in that city, St Jerome began writing his first work, "Concerning the Seven Beatings." But alas St Jerome fell gravely ill and most thought he was on the brink of death. It was then that God gave him a vision of his particular judgement which he would receive at the moment of his death. Of this event, St Jerome writes: Suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the judgement seat of the Judge; and here the light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I cast myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and what I was, I replied: “I am a Christian.” But He who presided said: “You lie, you are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For ‘where your treasure is, there will thy heart be also.’” LETTER XXII. 30 At that moment his soul came back to his body and he arose, shared with those around him the vision he received and from that day forward, he read the books of God with an even greater zeal than he ever read the books of men again. 

At the behest of Church officials in Antioch as well as Pope Damasus he was ordained a priest. Making the most of his freedom as a priest, St Jerome travelled to Constantinople where he studied under St. Gregory of Nazianzus, who was renowned as a great theologian. After St. Gregory left Constantinople in 382, St Jerome travelled to Rome for a council of the Church and met Pope Damasus, who made him his secretary. St Jerome also promoted the ideal of asceticism to everyone around him who wanted to live saintly lives.

When Pope Damasus died in 384, St Jerome's numerous detractors accused him with calumny and vicious rumours. He travelled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ’s life with an outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis (SW of modern day Allepo, Syria) 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. St Jerome died in Bethlehem, and the remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI writes: This dialogue with Scripture must …be a truly personal dialogue because God speaks with each one of us through Sacred Scripture, and it has a message for each one. We must not read Sacred Scripture as a word from the past but as the Word of God that is also addressed to us, and we must try to understand what it is that the Lord wants to tell us. 

Pope Francis wrote an apostolic letter in 2020, Scripturae Sacrae Affectus, for the 1600th anniversary of Jerome's death. He highlighted Jerome's love of Scripture as a source of both scholarship and spiritual growth.

We end with a prayer by St. Jerome to invoke God’s mercy

Show me, O Lord, your mercy, and delight my heart with it. Let me find you whom I so longingly seek. Behold, here is the man whom the robbers seized, manhandled, and left half dead on the road to Jericho. Kindhearted Samaritan, come to my aid! I am the sheep who wandered into the wilderness. Seek after me and bring me home again to your fold. Do with me according to your Will, that I may abide with you all the days of my life, and praise you with all those who are with you in heaven for all eternity. Amen.

 

Reference: General audience of 7 November 2007: Saint Jerome (1). (Pope Benedict XVI). https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20071107.html