SSPX.ca: Eucharistic Crusaders

St. Jerome

September 30

O God, You gave St. Jerome a great love for Holy Scripture. Let Your people feed more abundantly on Your word and find in it the source of life.

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Patron of Librarians

JEROME, born in Dalmatia, was sent to school at Rome. He visited foreign cities, devoted himself to the sciences and oratory, and finally became a lawyer. For a time he lived a worldly life, but later he received baptism at Rome.

After traveling through the East and visiting many holy persons, he decided to live in the desert of Chalcis in Syria, where he spent four years in prayer, study and penance. He writes of himself: "My limbs were covered with sackcloth and my skin became dry. For fear of hell I retired here into the dwelling place of serpents and of wild animals." He once drew a thorn from a lion's paw; the animal in gratitude remained with him ever after.

Jerome became a priest at Antioch. He went to Palestine and joined a monastery at Bethlehem. He translated the Bible into Latin, which was to be his noblest work. For thirty years he wrote many learned works, especially about Holy Scripture, and preserved in Latin the writings of many learned men. When. he died in the year 420, his body was buried at Bethlehem and later removed to Rome.

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