Jerome, son of Eusebius, was born at Stridonium in Dalmatia, during the reign of the emperor Constantius. He was baptised at Rome while still young, and was instructed in the liberal arts by Donatus and other learned men. His love of knowledge led him to travel in Gaul where he made the acquaintance of several pious men learned in divinity and copied many sacred books with his own hand. He then proceeded to Greece to study eloquence and philosophy. Here he won the friendship of some great theologians, in particular of Gregory Nazianzen, under whom he studied at Constantinople, and whom he called his master in sacred learning. Drawn by religious motives, he visited the crib of Christ our Lord, and the whole of Palestine. And he tells us that this pilgrimage, made in the company of some learned Jews, was of the greatest service to him for the understanding of holy Scripture.
After this Jerome retired into the lonely desert of Syria where he spent four years in reading the holy Scriptures, and in the contemplation of heavenly beatitude, afflicting his body by abstinence, weeping and every kind of penance. He was ordained a priest by Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, in whose company and that of Epiphanius, he went to Rome to settle the disputes that had arisen between certain bishops. Here Pope Damasus engaged him to assist in writing his ecclesiastical letters. But yearning for his former solitude, he returned to Palestine and settled at Bethlehem in a monastery built by the Roman lady Paula near our Lord’s crib. Here he led a heavenly life and though much afflicted with sickness and sufferings he devoted himself, in spite of his bodily weakness, to works of piety and to ceaseless study and writing.
From all parts of the world Jerome was referred to as an oracle for the decision of questions concerning the sacred Scriptures. Pope Damasus and Saint Augustine often consulted him on difficult passages of holy Writ, on account of his remarkable learning and his knowledge, not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic. According to Saint Augustine Jerome had read almost every author. In his writings he severely censured heretics, but always lent his support to faithful Catholics. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and at the command of Pope Damasus, revised the New Testament, collating it with the Greek. He also commented the greater part of holy Scripture. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men and enriched Christian science with other works from his own pen.
At length, having reached extreme old age, and being renowned for learning and holiness, Jerome passed to Heaven in the reign of Honorius. His body was buried at Bethlehem but was afterwards translated to Rome and laid in the basilica of Santa Mary ad Praesepe.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The holy martyr Leopardus, of the household of Julian the Apostate. He was beheaded at Rome and his body was subsequently taken to Aix-la-Chapelle.
At Soleure in Switzerland, in the time of the emperor Maximian, the passion of the holy martyrs Victor and Ursus of the glorious Theban legion, who were subjected to horrid tortures, but a heavenly light shining over them, and causing the executioners to fall to the ground, they were delivered. Being then cast into the fire without sustaining any injury, they finally perished by the sword.
At Piacenza, the holy martyr Antoninus, soldier of the same legion.
The same day, St. Gregory, bishop of Greater Armenia, who after many sufferings under Diocletian, rested in peace.
At Canterbury in England, St. Honorius, bishop and confessor.
At Rome, the birthday of St. Francis Borgia, of the Society of Jesus. His feast is celebrated on the tenth of October.
In the same city, St. Sophia, widow, mother of the holy virgins Faith, Hope and Charity.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
After this Jerome retired into the lonely desert of Syria where he spent four years in reading the holy Scriptures, and in the contemplation of heavenly beatitude, afflicting his body by abstinence, weeping and every kind of penance. He was ordained a priest by Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, in whose company and that of Epiphanius, he went to Rome to settle the disputes that had arisen between certain bishops. Here Pope Damasus engaged him to assist in writing his ecclesiastical letters. But yearning for his former solitude, he returned to Palestine and settled at Bethlehem in a monastery built by the Roman lady Paula near our Lord’s crib. Here he led a heavenly life and though much afflicted with sickness and sufferings he devoted himself, in spite of his bodily weakness, to works of piety and to ceaseless study and writing.
From all parts of the world Jerome was referred to as an oracle for the decision of questions concerning the sacred Scriptures. Pope Damasus and Saint Augustine often consulted him on difficult passages of holy Writ, on account of his remarkable learning and his knowledge, not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic. According to Saint Augustine Jerome had read almost every author. In his writings he severely censured heretics, but always lent his support to faithful Catholics. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and at the command of Pope Damasus, revised the New Testament, collating it with the Greek. He also commented the greater part of holy Scripture. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men and enriched Christian science with other works from his own pen.
At length, having reached extreme old age, and being renowned for learning and holiness, Jerome passed to Heaven in the reign of Honorius. His body was buried at Bethlehem but was afterwards translated to Rome and laid in the basilica of Santa Mary ad Praesepe.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus. He that cleaves to the Chair of Peter, he is mine.” Thus, about the year 376, when the whole cast was disturbed by the competitions for the episcopal See of Antioch, wrote an unknown monk to Pope Saint Damasus. It was Saint Jerome, a native of Dalmatia, who implored “light for his soul redeemed by the Blood of our Lord.”
Far from Stridonium, his semi-barbarous native place, whose austerity and vigour he never lost: far from Rome, where the study of literature and philosophy had not had sufficient ascendancy to withhold him from the seductions of pleasure: the fear of God’s judgements had led him into the desert of Chalcis. Here, under a burning sky, in the company of wild beasts, for four years he tormented his body with fearful macerations. And then, as a yet more efficacious remedy, and certainly a more meritorious mortification for one passionately fond of classical beauties, he sacrificed his Ciceronian tastes to the study of the Hebrew language. Such an undertaking was far more laborious then than in our days of lexicons and grammars and scientific works of every description. Many a time was Jerome discouraged and almost in despair. But he had learnt the truth of the maxim he afterwards inculcated to others: “Love the science of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh.” So he took up his Hebrew alphabet again, and continued to spell those ‘hissing and panting syllables’ until he had so mastered them as even to spoil his pronunciation of Latin. For the rest of his life, all the energy of his spirited nature was spent on this labour. God amply repaid the homage thus rendered to His sacred word: Jerome hoped to obtain by his toil the cure of his moral sickness. He moreover attained the lofty holiness that we now admire in him. Other heroes of the desert remain unknown: Jerome was one of those to whom it is said: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world” and God willed that in due time this light should be set upon a candlestick that it might shine to all that are in the houses (Matthew v. 13, l4, l5).
The once brilliant student returned to Rome an altered man, for his holiness, learning and humility, he was declared by all to be worthy of the episcopal dignity. Pope Damasus, the virgin doctor of the virgin Church, commissioned him to answer, in his name, the consultations sent from East and West, and caused him to begin, by the revision of the Latin New Testament upon the original Greek text, those great scriptural works which have immortalised his name and entitled him to the undying gratitude of the Christian world. Meanwhile Helvidius dared to call in question the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God: Jerome’s refutation revealed that talent for polemics of which Jovinian, Vigilantius, Pelagius and others were also to feel the force. Mary rewarded him for thus avenging her honour, by bringing to him a number of holy souls, whom he was to lead in the paths of virtue and instruct in the mysteries of holy Scripture.
Here was a phenomenon inexplicable to the infidel historian: at the very time when the Rome of the Caesars was perishing, suddenly around this Dalmatian were gathered the fairest names of ancient Rome. They were thought to have died out when the lower classes made themselves supreme, but at the critical moment when Rome was to rise again purified from the flames kindled by the barbarians, they reappeared to claim their birthright and refound the city for its true eternal destiny. The combat was of a new kind, but they were at the head of the army that was to save the world. Four centuries earlier, the apostle had said there were not many wise, and powerful and noble. Jerome declared that, in his day, they were numerous, “numerous among the monks.”
The monastic army in the West was, at its origin, chiefly recruited from the patricians whose character of ancient grandeur it ever afterwards retained. Its ranks included noble virgins and widows, and sometimes husband and wife would enlist together. Marcella was the first to inaugurate the monastic life at Rome in her palace on the Aventine. She obtained Saint Jerome’s direction for her privileged community, but after his departure she herself was consulted by all as an oracle on the difficulties of holy Scripture. She was joined in her retreat by Furia, Fabiola and Paula, worthy descendants of Camillus, of the Fabii, and of the Scipios. But the old enemy could ill brook such losses to his power: Jerome must be forced to leave Rome.
A pretext was soon found for raisin a storm. The Treatise on Virginity addressed to Paula’s daughter Eustochium, and written in Jerome’s fearless and pointed style, evoked the animosity of false monks, foolish virgins and unworthy clerics. In vain did the prudent Marcella predict the tempest: Jerome would make hold to write what others dared to practise. But he had not reckoned on the death of Pope Damasus at that very juncture, an event for which the ignorant and the envious had been waiting in order to give full vent to their stifled hatred. Driven away by the storm, the lover of justice returned to the desert. Not this time to Chalcis, but to the peaceful Bethlehem where the sweet recollection of our Saviour’s infancy attracted the strong athlete. Paula and her daughter soon followed him in order not to forgo the lessons they prized above all else in the world. Their presence was a consolation to him in his exile, and an encouragement to continue his labours. All honour to these valiant women! To their fidelity, their thirst for knowledge, their pious importunities, the world is indebted for a priceless treasure, viz: the authentic translation of the sacred Books, which was necessitated by the imperfections of the old Italic Version and its numberless variations, as also by the fact that the Jews were accusing the Church of falsifying the Scripture.
“Paula and Eustochium, may the labours of my poor life be pleasing to you, useful to the Church and worthy of posterity. As for contemporaries, I care but little for their judgement.” So said the holy solitary. Yet he felt the envious attacks of his bitter enemies more keenly than he would own to himself. “Handmaids of Christ,” he said, “shield me with the buckler of your prayers from those who malign me.” Every book he translated brought on him fresh criticisms, and those not only from enemies. There were the timid, who were alarmed for the authority of the Septuagint, so sacred both to the Synagogue and to the Church. There were the possessors of precious manuscripts, written on purple vellum and adorned with splendid uncials, and with letters of silver and gold, all which would now lose their value. “Well, let them keep their precious metal and leave us our poor papers,” cried Jerome exasperated. “And yet, it is you,” he said to the fair inspirers of his works, “who force me to endure all this folly and all these injuries. To put an end to the evil, it were better you enjoined silence on me.” But neither the mother nor the daughter would hear of such a thing, and Jerome yielded to constraint. Finding that the text of his first revision of the Psalter on the Greek Septuagint had become corrupted through careless transcriptions, they induced him to undertake a second. This version is inserted in our present Vulgate, together with his translation of the other Books of the Old Testament from Hebrew or Chaldaic. In all these works the saint appealed to Paula and Eustochium as guarantees of his exactitude, and begged them to collate his translations word for word with the original. All his old friends in Rome took part in this learned intercourse. Jerome refused to none the light of his knowledge, and pleasantly excused him self for giving one half of the human race a preference over the other: “Principia, my daughter in Jesus Christ, I know that some find fault with me for writing to women. Let me say, then, to these detractors: If men questioned me on the Scripture, they should receive my answers.”
There was great joy in the monasteries at Bethlehem when news arrived that another Paula was born in Rome. Eustochium’s brother had married Laeta, the Christian daughter of the pagan pontiff Albinus. They had vowed their child to God before her birth and now they rejoiced to hear her lisp into the ear of the priest of Jupiter the Christian Alleluia. On hearing of her grandmother beyond the seas, and of her aunt consecrated to God, the little one would beg to go and join them. “Send her,” wrote Jerome delightedly, “I will be her master and foster-father. I will carry her on my old shoulders. I will help her lisping lips to form her words, and I will be prouder than Aristotle, for he indeed educated a king of Macedon, but I will be preparing for Christ a handmaid, a bride, a queen predestined to a throne in Heaven.” The child was, in fact, sent to Bethlehem where she was destined to solace the last hours of the aged saint, and to assume, while yet very young, the responsibility of carrying on the work of her holy relatives.
But Jerome had still more to suffer, before leaving this world. The elder Paula was the first to be called away, singing: “I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners” (Psalm lxxxiii. 11). So great a langour then took possession of Saint Jerome, that it seemed his end was approaching. Eustochium, though broken hearted, repressed her tears and implored him to live and fulfil his promises to her mother. He therefore aroused himself, finished his translations and took up again his commentaries on the text. He had completed Isaias, and was engaged on Ezechiel, when the most awful calamity of those times came upon the world: “Rome is fallen. The light of the Earth is extinguished. In that one city the whole universe has perished. What can we do, but hold our peace and think upon the dead?” He had, however, to think about the living also, for numberless fugitives, destitute of all things, made their way to the holy places and the uncompromising wrestler was all tenderness to these unfortunates. Loving the practice of the holy Scripture no less than its teaching, he spent his days in discharging the duties of hospitality. In spite of his failing sight, he gave the night hours to his dear studies in which he forgot the troubles of the day and rejoiced to fulfil the desires of the spiritual daughter God had given him. The prefaces to his fourteen books on Ezechiel bear witness to the share taken by the virgin of Christ in this work undertaken despite the misfortunes of the times, his own infirmities, and his last controversies with heretics.
Heresy seemed indeed to be profiting of the troubled state of the world, to rise up with renewed audacity. The Pelagians, supported by bishop John of Jerusalem, assembled one night with torches and swords, and set fire to the monastery of Saint Jerome, and to that of the sacred virgins then governed by Eustochium. Manfully seconded by her niece Paula the younger, the saint rallied her terrified daughters, and they escaped together through the midst of the flames. But the anxiety of that terrible night was too much for her already exhausted strength. Jerome laid her to rest beside her mother, near the crib of the Infant God, and leaving his commentary on Jeremias unfinished, he prepared himself to die.
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You complete, O illustrious saint, the brilliant constellation of doctors in the heavens of holy Church. The latest stars are now rising on the sacred Cycle. The dawn of the eternal day is at hand. The Sun of Justice will soon shine down on the valley of judgement. O model of penance, teach us that holy fear which restrains from sin, or repairs its ravages. Guide us along the rugged path of expiation. Historian of great monks (Saint Paul the Hermit, Saint Hilarion and Saint Malchus), yourself a monk and father of the solitaries attracted like you to Bethlehem by the sweetness of the divine Infant, keep up the spirit of labour and prayer in the monastic Order of which several families have adopted your name. Scourge of heretics, attach us firmly to the Roman faith. Watchful guardian of Christ’s flock, protect us against wolves and preserve us from hirelings. Avenger of Mary’s honour, obtain for our sinful world that the angelic virtue may flourish more and more.
O Jerome, your special glory is a participation in the power of the Lamb to open the mysterious Book. The key of David was given to you to unclose the many seals of holy Scripture and to show us Jesus concealed beneath the letter. The Church, therefore, sings your praises today, and presents you to her children as the official interpreter of the inspired writings which guide her to her eternal destiny. Accept her homage and the gratitude of her sons. May our Lord, by your intercession, renew in us the respect and love due to His divine word. May your merits obtain for the world other holy doctors, and learned interpreters of the sacred Books. But let them bear in mind the spirit of reverence and prayer with which they must hear the voice of God in order to understand. God will have His word obeyed, not discussed: although, among the various interpretations of which that divine word is susceptible, it is lawful, under the guidance of the Church, to seek out the true one. And it is praiseworthy to be ever sounding the depths of beauty hidden in that august doctrine. Happy is he who follows your footsteps in these holy studies! You did say: “To live in the midst of such treasures, to be wholly engrossed in them, to know and to seek nothing else, is it not to dwell already more in Heaven than on Earth? Let us learn in time that science which will endure forever.”Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
The holy martyr Leopardus, of the household of Julian the Apostate. He was beheaded at Rome and his body was subsequently taken to Aix-la-Chapelle.
At Soleure in Switzerland, in the time of the emperor Maximian, the passion of the holy martyrs Victor and Ursus of the glorious Theban legion, who were subjected to horrid tortures, but a heavenly light shining over them, and causing the executioners to fall to the ground, they were delivered. Being then cast into the fire without sustaining any injury, they finally perished by the sword.
At Piacenza, the holy martyr Antoninus, soldier of the same legion.
The same day, St. Gregory, bishop of Greater Armenia, who after many sufferings under Diocletian, rested in peace.
At Canterbury in England, St. Honorius, bishop and confessor.
At Rome, the birthday of St. Francis Borgia, of the Society of Jesus. His feast is celebrated on the tenth of October.
In the same city, St. Sophia, widow, mother of the holy virgins Faith, Hope and Charity.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
