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St Jerome - Doctor of the Church

St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church
“Christ is our all; whoever has given up everything for Christ’s sake will find him alone in exchange for all else, and can boldly cry, ‘My inheritance is the Lord!’ “.
stjerome

St Jerome was born about the year 340 in Strido (present day Croatia), a small town at the head of the Adriatic, near the city of Aquilea. He received his schooling in Rome where he was baptized by Pope Liberius in 360. Learning was his first passion and would prove to be his path to sanctity. He broke away with the world to lead a life of a desert hermit and devoted himself to the study of God’s Word. He studied Hebrew and was able to read the Old Testament in its original language.
In 382 Jerome returned to Rome where he was employed as a secretary to Pope Damasus. Greek had now given way to Latin as the common language of the Church and the Pope entrusted St. Jerome with the task of translating the Bible into Latin. This was an overwhelming project for any single man, and it was to occupy him for the rest of his long life. He eventually left Rome for the Holy Land where he founded a monastery. Jerome preferred the austerity of monastic life. He also founded a free hospice for pilgrims so that if Mary and Joseph ever visited Bethlehem again they would have a place to stay!
When Rome was sacked in 410 refugees arrived in the Holy Land and Jerome paused from his task of translation to undertake relief work, “Today we must translate the words of the Scriptures into deeds, and instead of speaking saintly words we must act on them”. His temper could sometimes get the better of him because he did not accept fools gladly. This may be one of the reasons why he practiced self mortification. His translation of the Scriptures, the Vulgate Bible, was the official text of the Church for over fifteen hundred years and it is for this that he will always be remembered. Jerome died in Bethlehem on September 30th, 420. He was buried under the Church of the Nativity, an appropriate place for the one who made so widely known the message of the Word made flesh.

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fax: 727-596-6792
“The priority of every parish community is evangelization.”
— Pope John Paul II

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