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Jerome
"Saint Jerome" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Jerome (disambiguation) and Jerome (disambiguation).
St. Jerome
c. 347
Stridon (possibly Strido Dalmatiae, on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia)
Died
420
Bethlehem, Palaestina Prima
Honored in
Major shrine
Feast
Attributes
lion, cardinal attire, cross, skull, trumpet, owl, books and writing material
Patronage
archeologists; archivists; Bible scholars; librarians; libraries; school children; students; translators
Jerome
Life
Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347. He
was not baptized until about 360 - 366, when he had gone to Rome
with his friend Bonosus (who may or may not have been the same
Bonosus whom Jerome identifies as his friend who went to live as a
hermit on an island in the Adriatic) to pursue rhetorical and
philosophical studies. He studied under the grammarian Aelius
Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek, though
probably not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim
to have acquired as a schoolboy.
As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial escapades and
wanton behaviour of students there, which he indulged in quite
casually but for which he suffered terrible bouts of repentance
afterwards. To appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the
sepulchers of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. This
experience would remind him of the terrors of hell:
"Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug
in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the
St. Jerome in His Study (1480), by Domenico
bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that
Ghirlandaio.
almost it seemed as though the Psalmist's words were
[2]
fulfilled, Let them go down quick into Hell. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows,
but filtering down from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as
you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my
mind the line of Vergil, "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent'".[3]
Jerome used a quote from Virgil "On all sides round horror spread wide; the very silence breathed a terror on my
soul."[4] to describe the horror of hell. Jerome initially used classical authors to describe Christian concepts such
as hell that indicated both his classical education and his deep shame of their associated practices, such as pederasty
which was found in Rome. Although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted. After several
years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier where he seems to have first taken up
theological studies, and where he copied, for his friend Tyrannius Rufinus, Hilary of Poitiers' commentary on the
Psalms and the treatise De synodis. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at
Aquileia, where he made many Christian friends.
Some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into
northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill
more than once. During one of these illnesses (about the winter of 373374), he had a vision that led him to lay aside
his secular studies and devote himself to God. He seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of
the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the Bible, under the impulse of Apollinaris of Laodicea, then
teaching in Antioch and not yet suspected of heresy.
Jerome
Seized with a desire for a life of ascetic penance, he went for a time to
the desert of Chalcis, to the southwest of Antioch, known as the
"Syrian Thebaid", from the number of hermits inhabiting it. During this
period, he seems to have found time for study and writing. He made his
first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew;
and he seems to have been in correspondence with Jewish Christians in
Antioch. Around this time he had copied for him a Hebrew Gospel, of
which fragments are preserved in his notes, and is known today as the
Gospel of the Hebrews, and which the Nazarenes considered was the
true Gospel of Matthew. Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel
into Greek.
Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop
Paulinus, apparently unwillingly and on condition that he continue his
ascetic life. Soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a
St. Jerome reading in the countryside, by
study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent
Giovanni Bellini
two years there, then left, and the next three (382385) he was in
Rome again, attached to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman
Christians. Invited originally for the synod of 382, held to end the schism of Antioch as there were rival claimants to
be the proper patriarch in Antioch. Jerome had accompanied one of the claimants, Paulinus back to Rome in order to
get more support for him, and distinguished himself to the pope, and took a prominent place in his councils.
He was given duties in Rome, and he undertook a revision of the Latin Bible, to be based on the Greek manuscripts
of the New Testament. He also updated the Psalter containing the Book of Psalms then at use in Rome based on the
Septuagint. Though he did not realize it yet, translating much of what became the Latin Vulgate Bible would take
many years and be his most important achievement (see Writings Translations section below).
Jerome
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In Rome he was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated
women, including some from the noblest patrician families, such as the
widows Lea, Marcella and Paula, with their daughters Blaesilla and
Eustochium. The resulting inclination of these women to the monastic
life and from the indulgent lasciviousness in Rome, and his unsparing
criticism of the secular clergy of Rome, brought a growing hostility
against him among the Roman clergy and their supporters. Soon after
the death of his patron Damasus (10 December 384), Jerome was
forced by them to leave his position at Rome after an inquiry was
brought up by the Roman clergy into allegations that he had an
improper relationship with the widow Paula.
Jerome
It is recorded that Jerome died near Bethlehem on 30 September 420. The date of his death is given by the
Chronicon of Prosper of Aquitaine. His remains, originally buried at Bethlehem, are said to have been later
transferred to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, though other places in the West claim some relics
the cathedral at Nepi boasting possession of his head, which, according to another tradition, is in the Escorial.
Jerome
Jerome
the Vita Pauli monachi, written during his first sojourn at Antioch (ca. 376), the legendary material of which is
derived from Egyptian monastic tradition;
the Vitae Patrum (Vita Pauli primi eremitae), a biography of Saint Paul of Thebes;
the Vita Malchi monachi captivi (ca. 391), probably based on an earlier work, although it purports to be derived
from the oral communications of the aged ascetic Malchus originally made to him in the desert of Chalcis;
the Vita Hilarionis, of the same date, containing more trustworthy historical matter than the other two, and based
partly on the biography of Epiphanius and partly on oral tradition.
The so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum is spurious; it was apparently composed by a western monk toward
the end of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century, with reference to an expression of Jerome's in the opening chapter
of the Vita Malchi, where he speaks of intending to write a history of the saints and martyrs from the apostolic times.
Letters
Jerome's letters or epistles, both by the great variety of their subjects
and by their qualities of style, form an important portion of his literary
remains. Whether he is discussing problems of scholarship, or
reasoning on cases of conscience, comforting the afflicted, or saying
pleasant things to his friends, scourging the vices and corruptions of
the time and against sexual immorality among the clergy, [9] exhorting
to the ascetic life and renunciation of the world, or breaking a lance
with his theological opponents, he gives a vivid picture not only of his
own mind, but of the age and its peculiar characteristics. Because there
was no distinct line between personal documents and those meant for
publication, we frequently find in his letters both confidential messages
and treatises meant for others besides the one to whom he was
writing.[10]
The letters most frequently reprinted or referred to are of a hortatory
nature, such as Ep. 14, Ad Heliodorum de laude vitae solitariae; Ep.
22, Ad Eustochium de custodia virginitatis; Ep. 52, Ad Nepotianum de vita clericorum et monachorum, a sort of
epitome of pastoral theology from the ascetic standpoint; Ep. 53, Ad Paulinum de studio scripturarum; Ep. 57, to the
same, De institutione monachi; Ep. 70, Ad Magnum de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis; and Ep. 107, Ad Laetam de
institutione filiae.
Saint Jerome by Matthias Stom
Jerome
Theological writings
Practically all of Jerome's productions in the field of dogma have a
more or less vehemently polemical character, and are directed against
assailants of the orthodox doctrines. Even the translation of the treatise
of Didymus the Blind on the Holy Spirit into Latin (begun in Rome
384, completed at Bethlehem) shows an apologetic tendency against
the Arians and Pneumatomachoi. The same is true of his version of
Origen's De principiis (ca. 399), intended to supersede the inaccurate
translation by Rufinus. The more strictly polemical writings cover
every period of his life. During the sojourns at Antioch and
Constantinople he was mainly occupied with the Arian controversy,
and especially with the schisms centering around Meletius of Antioch
and Lucifer Calaritanus. Two letters to Pope Damasus (15 and 16)
complain of the conduct of both parties at Antioch, the Meletians and
Paulinians, who had tried to draw him into their controversy over the
application of the terms ousia and hypostasis to the Trinity. At the
same time or a little later (379) he composed his Liber Contra
Luciferianos, in which he cleverly uses the dialogue form to combat
the tenets of that faction, particularly their rejection of baptism by heretics.
In Rome (ca. 383) he wrote a passionate counterblast against the teaching of Helvidius, in defense of the doctrine of
the perpetual virginity of Mary and of the superiority of the single over the married state. An opponent of a
somewhat similar nature was Jovinianus, with whom he came into conflict in 392 (Adversus Jovinianum, Against
Jovinianus) and the defense of this work addressed to his friend Pammachius, numbered 48 in the letters). Once
more he defended the ordinary Catholic practices of piety and his own ascetic ethics in 406 against the Gallic
presbyter Vigilantius, who opposed the Cult_(religious_practice){cultus of martyrs and relics, the vow of poverty,
and clerical celibacy. Meanwhile the controversy with John II of Jerusalem and Rufinus concerning the orthodoxy of
Origen occurred. To this period belong some of his most passionate and most comprehensive polemical works: the
Contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum (398 or 399); the two closely connected Apologiae contra Rufinum (402); and
the "last word" written a few months later, the Liber tertius seu ultima responsio adversus scripta Rufini. The last of
his polemical works is the skilfully composed Dialogus contra Pelagianos (415).
Jerome
Despite the criticisms already mentioned, Jerome has retained a rank among the western Fathers. This would be his
due, if for nothing else, on account of the great influence exercised by his Latin version of the Bible upon the
subsequent ecclesiastical and theological development.Wikipedia:Citation needed
In art
In art, he is often represented as one of the four Latin doctors of the
Church along with Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose, and Pope Gregory I.
As a prominent member of the Roman clergy, he has often been
portrayed anachronistically in the garb of a cardinal. Even when he is
depicted as a half-clad anchorite, with cross, skull and Bible for the
only furniture of his cell, the red hat or some other indication of his
rank as cardinal is as a rule introduced somewhere in the picture.
He is also often depicted with a lion, in reference to a story telling how
Jerome tamed a lion by healing its paw. The source for the story is a
nearly identical story told about Saint Gerasimus, possibly due to
Salmaan's confusionWikipedia:Avoid weasel words between
"Gerasimus" and "Geronimus", the late Latin name of Jerome.[12][13]
Hagiographies of Jerome talk of his having spent a lot of his years in
the Syrian desert, and multiple artists have titled their works "St
Jerome in the wilderness"; some of them include Pietro Perugino and
Lambert Sustris.
He is also sometimes depicted with an owl, the symbol of wisdom and
scholarship.[14] Writing materials and the trumpet of final judgment are
also part of his iconography. He is commemorated on 30 September
with a memorial.
References
Notes
[1] In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is known as St. Jerome of Stridonium or Blessed
Jerome. Though "Blessed" in this context does not have the sense of being less than a
saint, as in the West.
[2] Psalm 55:15
[3] Patrologia Latina 25, 373: Crebroque cryptas ingredi, quae in terrarum profunda
defossae, ex utraque parte ingredientium per parietes habent corpora sepultorum, et
ita obscura sunt omnia, ut propemodum illud propheticum compleatur: Descendant
ad infernum viventes (Ps. LIV,16): et raro desuper lumen admissum, horrorem
temperet tenebrarum, ut non tam fenestram, quam foramen demissi luminis putes:
rursumque pedetentim acceditur, et caeca nocte circumdatis illud Virgilianum
proponitur (Aeneid. lib. II): "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent."
[4] P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid Theodore C. Williams, Ed. Perseus Project (http:/ / www.
perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0054:book=2:card=752)
(retrieved 23 Aug 2013)
[5] Joyce Salisbury, Encyclopedia of women in the ancient world, Blaesilla
[6] "The translation, which shows at times a peculiar ignorance of Hebrew usage, was
evidently made from a codex which differed widely in places from the text
crystallized by the Masorah (..) Two things, however, rendered the Septuagint unwelcome in the long run to the Jews. Its divergence from the
accepted text
Jerome
10
(afterward called the Masoretic) was too evident; and it therefore could not serve as a
basis for theological discussion or for homiletic interpretation. This distrust was
accentuated by the fact that it had been adopted as Sacred Scripture by [Christianity]
(..) In course of time it came to be the canonical Greek Bible (..) It became part of the
Bible of the Christian Church."
[7] "(..) die griechische Bibelbersetzung, die einem innerjdischen Bedrfnis entsprang
(..) [von den] Rabbinen zuerst gerhmt (..) Spter jedoch, als manche ungenaue
bertragung des hebrischen Textes in der Septuaginta und bersetzungsfehler die
Grundlage fr hellenistische Irrlehren abgaben, lehte man die Septuaginta ab."
Verband der Deutschen Juden (Hrsg.), neu hrsg. von Walter Homolka, Walter Jacob,
Tovia Ben Chorin: Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen; Mnchen,
Knesebeck, 1999, Bd.3, S. 43ff
[8] Pierre Nautin, article Hieronymus, in: Theologische Realenzyklopdie, Vol. 15,
Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1986, p. 304-315, here p. 309-310.
[9] "regulae sancti pachomii 84 rule 104.
[10] W. H. Fremantle, "Prolegomena to Jerome," V.
[11] Stefan Rebenich, Jerome (New York: Routlage, 2002), pp. 52-59
[12] "Eugene Rice has suggested that in all probability the story of Gerasimus's lion
became attached to the figure of Jerome some time during the seventh century, after
the military invasions of the Arabs had forced many Greek monks who were living in
the deserts of the Middle East to seek refuge in Rome. Rice conjectures (Saint
Jerome in the Renaissance, pp. 44-45) that because of the similarity between the
names Gerasimus and Geronimus -- the late Latin form of Jerome's name -- 'a
Latin-speaking cleric . . . made St Geronimus the hero of a story he had heard about
St Gerasimus; and that the author of Plerosque nimirum, attracted by a story at once
so picturesque, so apparently appropriate, and so resonant in suggestion and
meaning, and under the impression that its source was pilgrims who had been told it
in Bethlehem, included it in his life of a favourite saint otherwise bereft of miracles.'"
[13] "a figment" found in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine
[14] The Collection: St. Jerome (http:/ / artdepartment. nmsu. edu/ faculty/ zarursite/
retablo/ col-saints. html), gallery of the religious art collection of New Mexico State
University, with explanations. Accessed August 10, 2007.
Bibliography
J.N.D. Kelly, "Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies"
(Peabody, MA 1998)
Further reading
Saint Jerome, Three biographies: Malchus, St. Hilarion and Paulus the First Hermit Authored by Saint Jerome,
London, 2012. limovia.net. ISBN 978-1-78336-016-1
External links
St. Jerome (http://www.bartleby.com/210/9/301.html) ( pdf (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/jerome.
pdf)) from Fr. Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints (http://www.bartleby.com/210/)
The Life of St. Jerome, Priest, Confessor and Doctor of the Church (http://www.catholicrevelations.com/
category/saints/the-life-of-st-jerome-saint-doctor-priest-confessor-bible-translator-of-the-catholic-church.html)
"St. Jerome". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
Jewish Encyclopedia: Jerome (http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=239&letter=J&search=Jerome)
St. Jerome Catholic Online (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=10)
Jerome
St Jerome (Hieronymus) of Stridonium (http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&
FSID=101732) Orthodox synaxarion
earlyfathers.com/jerome/ Early Church Fathers. Jerome: Great Translator (link cybersquatted as of Mar. 17, 2013)
Further reading of depictions of Saint Jerome in art (http://www.art-threads.co.uk)
What happened on July 21, 365 A.D.? Jerome vindicated (http://www.q-mag.org/theeventofjuly21/index.
html)
St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church (http://www.christianiconography.info/jerome.html) at the Christian
Iconography (http://www.christianiconography.info) web site
Here Followeth the Life of Jerome (http://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/jerome.htm) from
Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend
Latin texts
Chronological list of Jerome's Works with modern editions and translations cited (http://www.fourthcentury.
com/index.php/jerome-chart)
Opera Omnia (Complete Works) from Migne edition (Patrologia Latina, 1844-1855) with analytical indexes,
almost complete online edition (http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/
20_40_0347-0420-_Hieronymus,_Sanctus.html)
Facsimiles
Migne volume 23 part 1 (1883 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC12663742&
id=o0MGQ5XJihYC&pg=PP347&lpg=PP347#PPA11,M1)
Migne volume 23 part 2 (1883 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC12663742&
id=o0MGQ5XJihYC&pg=PP347&lpg=PP347#PRA7-PA805,M1)
Migne volume 24 (1845 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=LCCN37001712&
id=XXwMAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA1&lpg=RA2-PA1#PPA13,M1)
Migne volume 25 part 1 (1884 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC12663742&
id=Fv4c9kz9L_cC&pg=RA6-PA815&lpg=RA6-PA815&#PPP13,M1)
Migne volume 25 part 2 (1884 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC12663742&
id=Fv4c9kz9L_cC&pg=RA6-PA815&lpg=RA6-PA815#PRA6-PA805,M1)
Migne volume 28 (1890 edition?) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC01289722&
id=Qc98ulXGPNUC&pg=PP17&lpg=PP17&#PPA11,M1)
Migne volume 30 (1865 edition) (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC01289722&
id=DBVvAAWbqbAC&pg=PP13&lpg=PP13&#PPA11,M1)
English translations
Jerome (1887). The pilgrimage of the holy Paula (http://archive.org/details/cu31924028534190). Palestine
Pilgrims' Text Society.
English translations of Biblical Prefaces, Commentary on Daniel, Chronicle, and Letter 120 (tertullian.org) (http:/
/www.tertullian.org/fathers/)
Jerome's Letter to Pope Damasus (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_preface_gospels.htm): Preface to
the Gospels
English translation of Jerome's De Viris Illustribus (http://www.istrianet.org/istria/illustri/jerome/works/
viris-illustribus.htm)
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm)
Lives of Famous Men (CCEL) (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203.v.iii.i.html)
Apology Against Rufinus (CCEL) (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf203.vi.xii.i.i.html)
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Jerome
Letters (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.toc.html), The Life of Paulus the First Hermit, The Life of
S. Hilarion, The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk, The Dialogue Against the Luciferians, The Perpetual
Virginity of Blessed Mary, Against Jovinianus, Against Vigilantius, To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem,
Against the Pelagians, Prefaces (CCEL)
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License
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