Feast day: 30 September
Saint Jerome
Sanctus Hieronymus
The fiercest and most learned of the Latin Fathers, who left Rome for a cave in Bethlehem and translated the whole Bible from Hebrew and Greek into the Latin Vulgate that the West read for sixteen centuries.
- Born
- c. 347, Stridon in Dalmatia
- Died
- 30 September 420, Bethlehem
- Canonization
- Venerated as a saint from antiquity by universal cult; declared a Doctor of the Church by Boniface VIII in 1298.
- Country
- Dalmatia, Rome and the Holy Land
Biography
The scholar and the dream
Educated at Rome under the grammarian Donatus, Jerome loved Cicero more than the prophets. Baptised about 366, he withdrew to the desert of Chalcis in Syria, where illness and a famous dream in which he was accused of being 'a Ciceronian, not a Christian' turned his prodigious learning to Scripture. There he began to learn Hebrew from a converted Jew, a rare accomplishment for a Latin of his time.
Secretary of the Pope, guide of Roman women
From 382 he served Pope Damasus I in Rome, who commissioned him to revise the Latin Gospels. He directed a circle of noble women, Marcella, Paula and Eustochium, in ascetic life and the study of Scripture. His sharp satire against a worldly clergy made him many enemies, and after Damasus died in 384 he left Rome for good.
Bethlehem and the Vulgate
Settling at Bethlehem in 386 beside monasteries founded by Paula, he spent thirty-four years translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew original rather than the Greek Septuagint, a decision criticised by Augustine but vindicated by history. He wrote commentaries on most of the biblical books, defended virginity and the veneration of relics, quarrelled brilliantly with Rufinus and the Pelagians, and cared for refugees after the sack of Rome in 410. He died in Bethlehem and was buried near the Grotto of the Nativity.
Timeline
- c. 347 — Born at Stridon in Dalmatia
- c. 375 — Desert of Chalcis; begins Hebrew
- 382 — Secretary to Pope Damasus; revises the Latin Gospels
- 386 — Settles at Bethlehem
- c. 405 — Completes the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew
- 410 — Receives refugees after the sack of Rome
- 420 — Dies at Bethlehem
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Lion — From the legend of the lion whose paw he healed; a medieval story, not history.
Skull, books and quill — Penance and lifelong scholarship.
Cardinal's hat — Anachronistic tribute to his service to Pope Damasus.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Relentless labour, penance, love of the sacred text, and humility enough to learn Hebrew from those his world despised, though he never conquered his temper.
Importance in the Church
The Vulgate shaped the language, liturgy, theology and art of the Latin West; the Council of Trent declared it authentic, and Jerome remains the patron of every effort to give the Scriptures to people in their own tongue. Benedict XV's encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus (1920) and Francis's Scripturae Sacrae Affectus (2020) honour him.
Quotes
“Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
Commentary on Isaiah, Prologue
“You are a Ciceronian, not a Christian.”
Letter 22 to Eustochium — the words of his dream
Writings
Biblia Vulgata — His Latin translation of the Bible, largely from the Hebrew and Greek originals.
De Viris Illustribus — The first Christian history of literature.
Letters (Epistulae) — Over 150 letters of spiritual direction, exegesis and controversy.
Prayers
Prayer for the love of Scripture
O God, who gave the priest Saint Jerome a living and tender love for Sacred Scripture, grant that your people may be ever more fruitfully nourished by your word and find in it the fount of life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Latin: Deus, qui beato Hieronymo presbytero suavem et vivum Scripturae Sacrae affectum tribuisti...
Collect of 30 September, Roman Missal.
Places
Grotto of Saint Jerome, Bethlehem — The cave beside the Nativity where he worked and was first buried.
Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome — Where his relics are venerated today.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)