September 30, 420 • Fall and Rise of Jerome

erhaps it was decreed that Jerome should become the greatest Christian scholar of his age. Well-versed in the classics, he loved the beauty of words. His one luxury was books. However, his adoration of pagan literature changed following a dream. In it, he was haled before Christ in the judgment. Asked his condition, he claimed to be a Christian. The great judge told him he lied. He was a Ciceronian. Dumb before this accusation, he was flogged. When he woke there were bruises on his back. Never again did pagan wisdom dominate his mind, although his principle contribution to the church would employ that learning.

Jerome's life-changing dream came while he was still a young man. At the time he was in the desert, where he had gone with some friends to protest the moral laxity of his generation. They all came close to killing themselves with austerities. Two of his friends did die, broken by fasting and cruel weather. Jerome survived the harsh conditions and returned to Rome where he became secretary to Pope Damasus. Although dwelling in the city, he kept apart from its vices, living the life of an ascetic in the midst of pomp, and castigating the folly of Rome's women and the greed of her men.

Damasus asked Jerome to correct errors in the Latin translations of the day, Jerome agreed. He began to see the Bible as his life's work.

Much of the work was done after he left Rome. All his life Jerome was quarrelsome and sarcastic. People were glad to hit back at him. The death of his pupil Blesilla from fasting was blamed on him. After Damasus died, Jerome migrated to a monastery in Bethlehem, sponsored by the wealthy widow Paulina, Blesilla's mother.

In Bethlehem, Jerome learned Hebrew and made a complete new translation of the scriptures into Latin. He chose his words for effect and made the work a treasure of literature much as the Authorized Version became for English. At first Jerome did not include the apocryphal books, but the pope ordered him to do so and he complied. His translation became known as the Vulgate, because it was written in the popular tongue of the empire. Vulgar meant "mob" or "common people." It was the Bible of the Middle Ages.

The Vandals sacked Rome in 410. In Bethlehem, the great Bible scholar witnessed the catastrophic results. Women whose painted eyes he had earlier derided now came to the monastery doors, seeking a bite to eat. Society daughters were eager to find any situation that offered a morsel of food. Their demands took him from his studies.

Those studies included the production of Bible commentaries. He was at work on a commentary on Ezekiel on this day, September 30, 420, when he died peacefully. His body was by then as thin as a shadow from fasting, and his voice and sight were failing.

Bibliography:

1. Bell, Mrs. Arthur. Saints in Christian Art. London: George Bell, 1901 - 1904. Source of the image.
2. Bowie, Walter Russell. Men of Fire. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961.
3. Butler's Lives of the Saints. Various editions.
4. Saltet, Louis. "St. Jerome." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
5. Durant, Will. The Age of Faith; A history of Medieval civilization--Christian, Islamic and Judaic--from Constantine to Dante: AD 325 - 1300. The Story of Civilization, Part IV. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950.
6. Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity. Editor Tim Dowley. Berkhamsted, Herts, England: Lion Publishing, 1977.

Last updated April, 2007.