St. Jerome is one of my top ten favorite saints. As a bishop and doctor of the Church,
Jerome was the most brilliant scripture scholar we have ever seen.
In
the course of studying the Bible, a good question to follow is how texts written
in Hebrew and Greek eventually got into English. Jerome had a critical role in this process as he translated
the entire Bible into Latin. This is now known as the Vulgate
translation of the Bible. As Latin
was the language of the Roman Empire, this translation impacted the future
accessibility and study of the Bible.
Another
amazing accomplishment from St. Jerome is his comparative texts. He eventually translated and
transcribed a text that compared the Hebrew, Greek and Latin side by side!
Jerome
didn’t just study the Bible. He
prayed with the Scriptures and preached about their importance. His most well known quote captures his mission:
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” He maintained that to know Jesus, we must know the Bible!
He also compared the words of Scripture to the Body of Christ. He said that, just as the priest is careful
with the Eucharist not to drop a single crumb, so too we must listen
attentively at Mass to the readings to prevent a single word from falling to
the ground.
Jerome
had a unique personality. Often we
think of the saints as gentle and charming individuals. Jerome was anything but and is known as
the irascible saint. His brash
personality was constantly on display in his interactions with Christians and
non-Christians and permeated his preaching. We see in Jerome how God can use us as we are, and that there
is no mold for sainthood.
Finally,
Jerome strove for virtue through an ascetical life. He was frequently tempted to fall to lust, and to combat
this he learned Hebrew!
Through
the intercession of St. Jerome, may the Word of God set our hearts on fire!
St.
Jerome, pray for us!
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