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The saints

St Jerome

The scholar who went to live beside the cave of the Nativity, and gave the West its Bible.

Feast: 30 September · about 340 to 420 · Stridon, Rome and Bethlehem

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An old Latin inscription cut into the rock at the grave of St Jerome, beneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Qasinka, 2013. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Bethlehem, 386

After the death of his patron Pope Damasus, a brilliant and sharp-tongued scholar leaves Rome.1

By way of Antioch and Alexandria he reaches Bethlehem in 386.1

He would stay there for the rest of his life, translating the Scriptures from the Hebrew.

01St Jerome

The Bible in Latin

In Rome, under Pope Damasus, Jerome corrected the Latin version of the Four Gospels in 384.1

In Bethlehem he went on to translate the Old Testament from the Hebrew.1

The Catechism quotes him: ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.2

02St Jerome

Bethlehem

He died at Bethlehem on 30 September 420.1

An old Latin inscription cut into the rock at the grave of St Jerome, beneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The inscription at St Jerome’s grave in the caves beneath the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem. Qasinka, 2013. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Jerome”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 133. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.