About that brilliant and difficult saint who translated the entire Bible

He was one of the first four men named Doctors of the Church. He created a Latin translation of the Bible used by Catholics since the fourth century. His extensive writings—commentaries, letters, and essays—influenced Christian thought during his lifetime and long afterward.

But Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, now known to the world as Saint Jerome of Stridon (347-420), was also considered a bit of a curmudgeon by his contemporaries. He was notoriously thin-skinned about criticisms of his work and publicly lost a friendship over a theological dispute. He had a witty, biting tongue, and he knew how to use it. He wrote a collection of biographies about the most famous men of his time, and he included himself on that list.

No one denies that Jerome made profound contributions to the Catholic Church. However, was he holy? Do we honor Jerome as a saint simply because his intellectual achievements were extraordinarily helpful to the Church or because he was a holy man?

Jerome was born in Stridon, a now-destroyed city somewhere in Croatia or Slovenia. His family was Catholic and was probably wealthy. After all, his father made sure that Jerome received an excellent education in the faith and in great literature. Young Jerome also developed some pious customs, such as praying at the tombs of the martyrs on Sundays. But he lacked guidance from more mature Christians. He later accused himself of developing bad habits during his youth, such as vanity over his accomplishments. This is probably the period when he lost his virginity, a fact which he bitterly regretted after his conversions.

Yes, Jerome claimed not one, but two conversions. According to his own testimony, his first conversion occurred when he was in his early twenties. He was studying in Trier when a love of God began to stir in his soul, and Jerome started to seriously practice his faith. Over the next several years, he traveled to Syria, Turkey, and Palestine to continue his studies under great Catholic teachers.

His second conversion occurred in Antioch. While sick and feverish, he experienced a vivid dream in which he seemed to be standing before the judgment seat of God, facing Jesus Christ himself. Christ accused Jerome in the dream of being more of a Ciceronian—a lover of the pagan and Roman writer Cicero—than a Christian. After Jerome recovered from his sickness, he set aside pagan literature (mostly) and devoted himself more fully to his faith.

During his early travels, he studied under bishops and saints Gregory of Nazianzus and Chromatius of Aquileia and befriended like-minded Catholic intellectuals. Then he decided to leave the world behind and become a hermit. Living in a cave in Syria, he struggled valiantly against sexual temptation. But his cave was not small, and it was filled with books. Jerome, whose native language was Illyrian, had already mastered Latin and Greek. Now he tackled the Hebrew language as a sort of mental diversion. With the help of a monk who had been Jewish, Jerome mastered Hebrew and experienced the spiritual fruits of reading the Old Testament in its original language. He wanted to share those fruits with others.

Meanwhile, Jerome was drawn into doctrinal disputes in nearby Antioch. He already had been ordained a priest by his bishop, Paulinus. His bishop asked Jerome to accompany him to Rome as an aide and discuss these matters with the pope. After this meeting, his bishop returned to Syria, but Pope Saint Damasus recognized Jerome’s talents and made him his secretary.

Jerome continued to follow many of the ascetical practices he had learned in the desert, but his position as the pope’s secretary led him to move among the upper circles of Roman society. Several noble but pious widows of Rome—the future saints Fabiola, Lea, Marcella, and Paula, among others—were inspired by their conversations with Jerome and began to live simpler lives. Other noblewomen—particularly those whom Jerome had criticized for their extravagant lifestyles—circulated vicious gossip about these women’s relationships with Jerome.

By the time of the death of Pope Damasus, Jerome had earned himself many enemies both in the Church and Roman society. And he was out of a job. He decided to return to the Holy Land. Paula and other wealthy women later followed his example.

Eventually, a monastery was built in Bethlehem to house Jerome and his monks, along with other buildings for Paula and her friends, which became a community of nuns. These buildings were funded by Paula’s fortune, and Jerome and his monks offered hospitality to Christian pilgrims who came to Bethlehem.

Although Jerome spent the next thirty-five years in the Holy Land, far removed from famous cities, his intellectual impact on the Church only grew. He completed the Latin translation of the Bible that Pope Damasus had asked him to begin. He wrote letters and essays about current disputes within the Church. He continued writing Biblical commentaries and translating other works, drawing on his knowledge of multiple languages and other Christian writers.

Jerome was truly an intellectual giant. But was he a saint?

Setting aside questions about his charity of speech for the moment, Jerome certainly lived out his Catholic faith in a way that would be considered holy in any century. A man of his intelligence and family background could have easily pursued a lucrative secular career, married well (or lived promiscuously, if he chose), and become a famous scholar. But Jerome chose a life of consecrated virginity, monastic simplicity, and charitable service of others. No one argues that he lived a holy life as a chaste, obedient monk.

On the other hand, Jerome clearly fought an interior battle over the charitable use of his tongue. If you dared to question his arguments on a theological topic, you could expect one of the greatest minds in the history of the Church to respond with his verbal guns blazing.

For example, Jerome began his famous letter Against Helvidius by saying that others had been begging him to refute Helvidius’ arguments against the perpetual virginity of Mary. Jerome said that he had previously declined to do so because Helvidius’ arguments were so poor. He also insulted Helvidius, calling him an ignorant boor among other things. But, as Jerome rather effectively proved in his point-by-point refutation of his opponent’s arguments, Helvidius really was an ignorant boor who didn’t know the Bible well enough to make the point he was trying to make.

Jerome also had a very public disagreement with a friend, Rufinus of Aquileia. Jerome believed that there were dangers in the writings of the ecclesiastical writer Origen and argued that Rufinus was wrong to ignore those dangers and uncritically promote Origen’s works. Once again, Jerome was right, but his public statements ended their friendship.

Was Jerome demonstrating pride when he included his name in his collection of famous leaders, On Illustrious Men? Considering his résumé, it would have been false modesty for him to do otherwise. But the entry Jerome created for himself merely listed his own writings, without including any of the superlatives he used to describe some of the other men in his book.

Unquestionably, Jerome sometimes lacked gentleness in his words. However, he did not get into major arguments with other Catholics about trivial matters. Instead, he waded into battle when people spoke wrongly about the truths of the faith or promoted ideas that could harm the faith of others. What else could a man who had dedicated his scholarly abilities to the service of Jesus Christ be expected to do?

Even saints have personal weaknesses, some more visible than others, and Saint Jerome of Stridon recognized his faults and fought against them. It should give all of us ordinary Catholics great hope that we can become saints, as long as we fight our weaknesses as vigorously as we fight our enemies.

Catholic World Report