Jerome

(c. 342–420)

   Historian, Theologian, Translator and Saint.

   Jerome was born Eusebius Hieronymus of a Christian family in Stridon, Italy. He was educated in Rome, travelled in Gaul and embarked on the ascetic life. Then, in c. 374, he set out for the Holy Land, spending some time as a hermit near Chalcis and in Antioch, where he was ordained priest. Subsequently he studied with Gregory of nazianzus in Constantinople, and then, in 382, journeyed to Rome where he became secretary to Pope Damascus. Finally he settled in Bethlehem in 386 where he supervised a monastery and acted as a spiritual advisor. Jerome is primarily remembered for his translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate) from the original languages. This translation has been used up to the present day and has been enormously influential within the Church. In addition he wrote many biblical commentaries; he distinguished between the Hebrew canon of Scripture and the Apocrypha; he translated the works of eusebius of caesarea and origen into Latin; he engaged in theological controversy against the ideas of arius, pelagius, Origen and Helvidius and compiled a bibliography of ecclesiastical writers. He must be seen as the most outstanding scholar of his day. In Christian art he is often portrayed in a red hat (presupposing that Pope Damascus made him a Cardinal) and with a lion at his feet.

   J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writing and Controversies (1975);

   F.X. Murphy (ed.), A Monument to St Jerome: Essays on his Life, Work and Influence (1952);

   H.F.D. Sparks, ‘Jerome as biblical scholar’, in P.R. Ackroyd and C.F. Evans (eds), The Cambridge History of the Bible, Vol. 1 (1970).