September 30 - Saint Jerome

Quick Facts

• Born to a rich pagan family, he led a misspent youth.
• Studied in Rome.
• Lawyer.
• Converted in theory, and baptised in 365, he began his study of theology, and had a true conversion.
• Monk.
• Lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts.
• Reported to have drawn a thorn from a lion's paw; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years.
• Priest.
• Student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen.
• Secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned him to revise the Latin text of the Bible.
• The result of his 30 years of work was the Vulgate translation, which is still in use.
• Friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip, Jerome left Rome to return to the desert solitude.
• Lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse.
• Wrote translations of Origen, histories, biographies, and much more.
• Doctor of the Church, Father of the Church.
• Since his own time, he has been associated in the popular mind with scrolls, writing, cataloging, translating, etc.
• This led to those who work in such fields taking him as their patron - a man who knew their lives and problems.