From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 30th - Saint Jerome, Confessor and Doctor of the Church   
      
   SAINT JEROME is very much a part of our everyday life.  Most of us are   
   affected   
   by his chief work.  This work, the Vulgate Bible, a translation of Scripture   
   into Latin, which became and still remains the approved Catholic version, is   
   undoubtedly one of the greatest accomplishments of history.  It has had a   
   tremendous influence on the evolution of Christian culture, and it is for   
   this   
   reason that all of us owe much to Saint Jerome.   
      
    Jerome was born about 342, at Stridonium, a little village in Dalmatia,   
   near   
   the borders of present-day Hungary.  Its exact site is unknown, as it was   
   wiped   
   out in a Gothic invasion.  His parents were Christians; Christians in the   
   fashion of a time when pagan and Christian were socially fused.  Because   
   they   
   were wealthy and because Jerome was a precocious boy, and had succeeded well   
   in   
   his studies at home, they sent him to Rome to complete his education.  He   
   remained there for several years.  He was an eager scholar and soon was deep   
   in   
   the study of the Greek and Latin classics of literature, history, and   
   philosophy.  In addition to his studies, the young man began a life-long   
   project-building a library of his own.  This did not mean the purchase of   
   books,   
   but copying the works himself.  Besides enjoying the intellectual pleasures   
   of   
   literature, Jerome joined in the other pleasures of Rome and delighted in   
   games   
   and spectacles.   
      
    At the age of twenty, Jerome was baptized by Pope Liberius.  The sacrament   
   had   
   been deferred until this time so that the sins of youth would be taken away,   
   a   
   common abuse of the time.  The young man had become aware of Christianity in   
   the   
   Eternal City.  Two things impressed him: the fervor of congregations in the   
   churches and the tombs of the apostles and martyrs which he visited.   
      
    Eager for knowledge, Jerome made a journey to Gaul with a friend, searching   
   for   
   the centers of learning and opportunities to learn what they had to offer.   
   He   
   sojourned for some time at Trier (in present-day Germany, one of the oldest   
   cities in Europe and in Jerome's time a seat of the imperial court) where he   
   transcribed some of the works of Saint Hilary of Poitiers.  It was probably   
   while he was in Gaul that Jerome began to think of renouncing the world for   
   a   
   life entirely devoted to Christ.  He returned to his own province, to the   
   city   
   of Aquilea, and remained there for some time, in the company of a group of   
   devout men who had been brought together by a local priest.  Soon some   
   troubles   
   arose and with three friends and all his precious manuscripts, Jerome set   
   out   
   eastward.  Perhaps he intended to go to Palestine, but he arranged his route   
   to   
   take in many cities of Asia Minor on the way.  When he reached Antioch, an   
   important cultural center, his health required him to remain for several   
   months.   
      
    At Antioch, an event occurred that turned Jerome's love for literature from   
   the   
   pagan classics to Christian writings.  He had a dream.  In the dream, he was   
   brought before the great judge.  Asked who he was, he answered that he was a   
   Christian.  "You lie," said the judge, "you are a Ciceronian.  Where your   
   treasure is, there is your heart." Jerome resolved never again to read the   
   literary works he had loved so well, but to devote himself to Scripture.   
      
    Jerome now desired a more solitary life, and went to the desert of Chalcis,   
   about fifty miles southeast of Antioch.  Here he lived the penitential life   
   of a   
   hermit, but instead of occupying a narrow hut as the others did, Jerome   
   lived in   
   a room spacious enough to hold his library.  He spent his days in prayer,   
   study   
   of the Scripture, and copying books.   
      
    The delights of Rome were not easy to forget; Jerome was plagued by   
   unchaste   
   thoughts and was homesick also for the world of thought, study, and   
   discussion.   
   To dispel his unhappy state of mind, he decided to study Hebrew with the   
   help of   
   a monk who was a Jew by birth.  The knowledge of this language enabled him   
   to   
   translate the Scriptures from more direct sources.  He also organized a   
   workshop   
   of copyists, and began to write letters to his friends in the West.   
      
    Unfortunately, this pleasant solitude was disrupted by the theological   
   disputes   
   of quarreling monks, and Jerome in exasperation went back to Antioch.  Here   
   after some resistance he allowed himself to be ordained a priest by the   
   bishop   
   Paulinus, but reserved the right to remain unattached to any particular   
   diocese.   
   He went to Constantinople in 380 to meet Saint Gregory Nazianzen and then to   
   Rome in 382.   
      
    When Saint Jerome spoke at a council there, Pope Damasus was impressed by   
   his   
   learning and the sureness of his doctrine, and took him as secretary.  This   
   gave   
   Jerome many opportunities to exercise his talents.  Almost immediately the   
   pope   
   commissioned him to revise the New Testament.  He revised, in accordance   
   with   
   the Greek text, the Latin New Testament, which had been disfigured by clumsy   
   correction.   
      
    In fostering Christian asceticism, he sought the assistance of a group of   
   holy   
   women influenced by Saint Athanasius, members of Rome's first convent.   
   Among   
   the women were Saint Marcella and Saint Paula, with Paula's daughters,   
   Saints   
   Blesilla and Eustochium.   
      
    During this time, Rome was at Jerome's feet.  He was spoken of as the next   
   pope.  But one cannot be so well-liked and have such definite ideas (and   
   express   
   them with such vigor) and not gain enemies.  In 384 Pope Damasus died and   
   Jerome   
   lost his protector.  Those who hated Jerome influenced the people and   
   shouted   
   against him, attacking his reputation with slander.   
      
    Jerome, with Paula and Eustochium and a group of other women who wanted to   
   lead   
   a dedicated life, went to the Holy Land where they traveled about for some   
   time,   
   and finally settled in Bethlehem, where two monasteries were built, one for   
   Jerome and his monks, the other for Paula and her companions.  Education and   
   care of the needy were not neglected, but the most important work of the   
   Bethlehem group was continued work on the Scriptures.  Jerome now translated   
   most of the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew, and some from the Greek   
   Septuagint.  He had sought the help of a Jewish rabbi to improve his   
   knowledge   
   of Hebrew.  Not content with this, be wrote many scriptural commentaries,   
   two   
   biographies, and a history of ecclesiastical writers, and kept up a vast   
   correspondence.  Besides all this there were sermons or conferences for   
   monks,   
   and lessons for young people.   
      
    For thirty-six years the scholar lived at Bethlehem.  Most of these years   
   were   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)