Saint Jerome, Translator & Teacher

September 30 – St. Jerome, translator and teacher –

He is known as the 4th-5th century scholar who translated the Bible into the language ordinary people could read. At this time, the declining decades of the Roman Empire, the ordinary language was Latin. Jerome’s version of the Bible is known as the Vulgate. Jerome was born in Dalmatia in the 340s and died in Bethlehem on Sept. 30, 419/420.

Jerome is considered the most learned of the Latin Church Fathers, being fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, with knowledge of Aramaic, Arabic, and Syriac, according to St. Jerome: Perils of a Bible Translator. In addition, he made available to westerners other Greek texts. Jerome had a dream in which he was criticized for being a Ciceronian, which he interpreted to mean he should read Christian material, not the Classics, so he changed his focus. [Cicero was a Roman orator and statesman contemporary with Julius and Augustus Caesar.]

~”Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ” – Jerome

~Image: St. Jerome, Caravaggio