Saint Jerome

Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus), c.347-420, was a Father of the Church and Doctor of the Church, whose great work was the translation of the Bible into Latin, the edition known as the Vulgate (see Bible). He was born at Stridon on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia of a well-to-do Christian family. His parents sent him to Rome to further his intellectual interests, and there he acquired a knowledge of classical literature and was baptized at the age of 19. Shortly thereafter he journeyed to Trier in Gaul and to Aquileia in Italy, where he began to cultivate his theological interests in company with others who, like himself, were ascetically inclined.

About 373, Jerome set out on a pilgrimage to the East. In Antioch, where he was warmly received, he continued to pursue his humanist and monastic studies. He also had a profound spiritual experience, dreaming that he was accused of being "a Ciceronian, not a Christian." Accordingly, he determined to devote himself exclusively to the Bible and theology, although the translator Rufinus (345-410), Jerome's close friend, suggested later that the vow was not strictly kept. Jerome moved to the desert of Chalcis, and while practicing more rigorous austerities, pursued his studies, including the learning of Hebrew. On his return to Antioch in 378 he heard Apollinaris the Younger (c.310-c.390) lecture and was admitted to the priesthood (379) by Paulinus, bishop of Antioch. In Constantinople, where he spent three years around 380, he was influenced by Gregory of Nazianzus.

When Jerome returned to Rome Pope Damasus I appointed him confidential secretary and librarian and commissioned him to begin his work of rendering the Bible into Latin. After the death (384) of Damasus, however, Jerome fell out of favor, and for a second time he decided to go to the East. He made brief visits to Antioch, Egypt, and Palestine. In 386, Jerome settled at Bethlehem in a monastery established for him by Paula, one of a group of wealthy Roman women whose spiritual advisor he had been and who remained his lifelong friend. There he began his most productive literary period, and there he remained for 34 years, until his death. From this period come his major biblical commentaries and the bulk of his work on the Latin Bible.

The writings of Jerome express a scholarship unsurpassed in the early church and helped to create the cultural tradition of the Middle Ages. He developed the use of philological and geographical material in his exegesis and recognized the scientific importance of archaeology. In his interpretation of the Bible he used both the allegorical method of the Alexandrian and the realism of the Antiochene schools. A difficult and hot-tempered man, Jerome made many enemies, but his correspondence with friends and enemies alike is of great interest, particularly that with Saint Augustine. His greatest gifts were in scholarship, and he is a true founder of scientific biblical exegesis in the West. Feast day: Sept. 30 (Western).

Ross Mackenzie

Bibliography
Berschin, W., Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages, rev. ed. (1989); Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome, His Life, Writings, and Controversies (1975); Steinmann, Jean, Saint Jerome and His Times (1959); Wiesen, David S., St. Jerome as a Satirist (1949; repr. 1964).

Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome, [in Latin, Eusebius Hieronymus] (347?-419 or 420), was Father of the Church, Doctor of the Church, and biblical scholar, and whose most important work was a translation of the Bible into Latin (see Vulgate). Jerome was born in Stridon, on the border of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, about 347. After a period of literary study in Rome, he withdrew to the desert, where he lived as an ascetic and pursued the study of Scripture. In 379 he was ordained a priest. He then spent three years in Constantinople (present-day İstanbul) with the Eastern church father, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. In 382 he returned to Rome, where he was made secretary to Pope Damasus I and became an influential figure. Many people placed themselves under his spiritual direction, including a noble Roman widow named Paula and her daughter, both of whom followed him to the Holy Land in 385 after the death of Damasus. Jerome fixed his residence at Bethlehem in 386, after Paula (later Saint Paula) founded four convents there, three for nuns and one for monks; the latter was governed by Jerome himself. There he pursued his literary labors and engaged in controversy not only with heretics Jovinian and Vigilantius and the adherents of Pelagianism, but also with monk and theologian Tyrannius Rufinus and with Saint Augustine. Because of his conflict with the bishop of Jerusalem, by about 395 Jerome found himself threatened with expulsion by the Roman civil authorities. Although this threat was averted, Jerome's later years were overshadowed by the sack of Rome in 410, the death of Paula and her daughter, and his own increasing isolation.

In addition to his work on the Bible, Jerome's literary activity was extensive and varied. He continued the Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea, which covered sacred and profane history from the birth of Abraham to AD303, bringing the narrative to the year 378. For his De Viris Illustribus (On Famous Men), Jerome drew upon the Ecclesiastical History of the same Eusebius. He also wrote a number of commentaries on various books of the Bible, as well as polemical treatises against various theological opponents. Jerome was a brilliant and prolific correspondent; more than 150 of his letters survive. His feast day is September 30.