Jerome, Translator of the Scriptures
30 September -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Teachers, page 473
Jerome was born at Strido near Aquileia on the Adriatic
coast of Dalmatia, in about the year 342. He studied at
Rome, where he was baptised. He tried the life of a monk
for a time, but unsuccessfully. Following a dream in which
he stood before the judgement seat of God and was condemned
for his faith in classics rather than Christ, he learned
Hebrew the better to study the Scriptures. This, with his
polished skills in rhetoric and mastery of Greek, enabled
him to begin his life's work of translating the
newly-canonised Bible into Latin. He eventually settled at
Bethlehem, where he founded a monastery and devoted the rest
of his life to study. He died on this day in the year 420.