Every September 30, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Jerome (c. 340 – 420), the most famous translator of the Bible in all of history. He is part of the group of Fathers of the Latin Church alongside Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose and Saint Gregory. Saint Jerome also holds the title of Doctor of the Church.
Jerome of Strydon, as he is also known, was the great translator of the Bible in ancient times (4th century). Due to the neatness of his work and his deep knowledge of both Scripture and the ancient languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), he left an indelible mark on the exegetical tradition of the Church.
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Saint Jerome translated the different books that make up the Bible (canonical books) into Latin, taking as a starting point the ancient texts in their original languages, that is, the Greek and Hebrew versions of the Old Testament and the New Testament. As is known, Latin was the most important language of its time and to this day it is considered the official language of the Catholic Church. This titanic work was carried out by Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus I (p.366-384).
Therefore, for Tradition, this saint represents the love of the Word of God par excellence, a love that he expressed in the following way: “Love the sacred Scripture, and wisdom will love you; love it tenderly, and it will guard you; honor it and you will receive his caresses.”
The Vulgate
Eusebius Hieronymus (Jerome) was born in Strydon (Dalmatia) around the year 340. He studied in Rome and was baptized there. He then moved to the East, where he would be ordained a priest. After returning to Rome, he became secretary to Pope Damasus.
At that time, at the request of the Supreme Pontiff, Jerome began to work on a translation of the Bible into Latin – his mother tongue. The saint also stood out in the use of the most important languages of those times and given that the books of the Holy Scriptures were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the Pope saw in Jerome the most suitable person to carry out that task.
Saint Jerome corrected the Latin version of the New Testament (Old Latin) and then began to translate the Old Testament directly from Hebrew. It is known that he used the Seventythat is, the version of the Bible in Greek, known as the Greek Bible or the Seventy, from Alexandria.
In the middle of the translation process, the saint moved to Bethlehem (Holy Land) with the purpose of getting to know the culture better and perfecting his Hebrew – this technically made him a kind of father of philology as a discipline. He lived there for several years (approximately a decade) dedicating himself at the same time to writing commentaries and interpretations of the Holy Scripture. From this stage came most of his great commentaries on a variety of biblical passages.
The translation of the Bible made by Saint Jerome is known as the “Vulgate” (“Vulgate Edition“, that is, “edition for the people”), completed around the year 405 and which was considered for centuries as the official version of the Bible by the Catholic Church. In fact, more than a millennium later, in 1546, the Council Fathers of Trent (Council of Trent, 1545-1563) recognized that the Latin Vulgate enjoyed this status.
The story of the Bethlehem grotto
According to tradition, one Christmas night, after the Christian faithful had left the Bethlehem grotto, the saint was left praying alone in the place.
Suddenly, he heard inside him that the Child Jesus said to him: “Jerónimo, what are you going to give me for my birthday?” He responded: “Lord, I give you my health, my fame, my honor, so that you may have everything as you see fit.” The Child Jesus added: “And you don’t give me anything else?” “O my beloved Savior! -Jeronimo exclaimed- for you I already distributed my goods among the poor. For you I have dedicated my time to studying the Holy Scriptures… What else can I give you? If you wanted, I would give you my body to burn on a bonfire so I could wear it all out for You.”
The Divine Child then said to him: “Jerome: give me your sins to forgive you.” The saint, upon hearing this, began to cry with emotion and exclaimed: “You must be crazy with love, when you ask me for this!”
September, month of the Bible
Saint Jerome died on September 30, 420. Therefore, every September – in which his liturgical feast is celebrated – the Church promotes knowledge and love of the Bible among the faithful. The saint said: “To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ.”
Pope Benedict XVI, in the general audience of November 7, 2007, recalled the words that Saint Jerome addressed to Saint Paulinus of Nola (354-431): “In the word of God we receive eternity, eternal life. Saint Jerome says: ‘Let us try to learn on earth the truths whose consistency will also remain in heaven.’”
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If you want to know more about Saint Jerome, we recommend that you read the following article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Jer%C3%B3nimo.
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