~`+`~'ST.JEROME~SCHOLAR OF THE OLD TESTAMENT'~`+`~
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~`+`~'ST.JEROME~SCHOLAR OF THE OLD TESTAMENT'~`+`~
'SAINT OF THE DAY `09/30/13`
:Bio Quick Facts:
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NAME: St Jerome
OCCUPATION: Saint, Theologian, Writer
BIRTH DATE: 1347
DEATH DATE: 1420
PLACE OF BIRTH: Stridon, on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia
PLACE OF DEATH: Bethlehem, Judea
AKA: Eusebius Hieronymus
AKA: Sophronius
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Best Known For:
St Jerome was a 4th-century religious scholar and ascetic
who's responsible for the Vulgate, the Catholic Church's
Latin version of the Bible's Old Testament
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Born in the mid-4th century in Stridon, Dalmatia,
Jerome was a young scholar at Rome.
He later developed a deep interest in asceticism and worked
on creating a unified Latin version of the Bible's New Testament.
After moving to Bethlehem in 386, he translated sections
of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin,
creating the template for the Roman Catholic Church's Vulgate.
SAINT OF THE DAY ~`09/30/2013
`Source: `American Catholic.org`
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Saint of the Day
Catholic saints are holy people and human people
who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation
to use his or her unique gifts.
God calls each one of us to be a saint.
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September 30
St. Jerome
(345-420)
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Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding
virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome
is frequently remembered for his bad temper!
It is true that he had a very bad temper and
could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God
and his Son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense;
anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth,
and St. Jerome went after him or her with his mighty
and sometimes sarcastic pen.
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He was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the
Old Testament from the Hebrew. He also wrote commentaries which
are a great source of scriptural inspiration for us today.
He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer
and a consultant to monk, bishop and pope. St. Augustine (August 28)
said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known."
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St. Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation
of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most
critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was
fortunate. As a modern scholar says, "No man before Jerome
or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries
afterwards were so well qualified to do the work." The Council of Trent
called for a new and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared
it the authentic text to be used in the Church.
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In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared himself well.
He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic.
He began his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia
(in the former Yugoslavia). After his preliminary education
he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time,
and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very
much in evidence. He spent several years in each place,
always trying to find the very best teachers. He once served as
private secretary of Pope Damasus (December 11).
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After these preparatory studies he traveled extensively in Palestine,
marking each spot of Christ's life with an outpouring of devotion.
Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis
so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance and study.
Finally he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave
believed to have been the birthplace of Christ.
On September 30 in the year 420, Jerome died in Bethlehem.
The remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica
of St. Mary Major in Rome.
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Comment:
Jerome was a strong, outspoken man. He had the virtues
and the unpleasant fruits of being a fearless critic
and all the usual moral problems of a man.
He was, as someone has said, no admirer of moderation
whether in virtue or against evil.
He was swift to anger, but also swift to feel remorse,
even more severe on his own shortcomings
than on those of others.
A pope is said to have remarked, on seeing a picture of Jerome
striking his breast with a stone, "You do well to carry that stone,
for without it the Church would never have canonized you"
(Butler's Lives of the Saints).
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