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 Most of the saints
are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced,
but Jerome is remembered too frequently for his bad temper! It is true that
he had a very bad temper and could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God
and his Son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught
error was an enemy of God and truth, and St. Jerome went after him or her
with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen.
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 which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical
edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was fortunate. As a
modern scholar says, "No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and
very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the
work." The Council of Trent called for a new and corrected edition of the
Vulgate, and 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. He began his studies at his
birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia (in the former Yugoslavia). After his
preliminary education he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time,
and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very much in evidence.
He spent several years in each place, trying always to find the very best
teachers.
After these preparatory studies he traveled 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 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. On September 30 in the year 420, Jerome died in Bethlehem. The
remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in
Rome.
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