Jerome was born to Christian parent at Stridon, on the border between Pannonia and Dalmatia circa 347 A.D.. He was baptized in 360, when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue his rhetorical and philosophical studies. Here he studied under Aelius Donatus, a skillful compiler of language techniques which Donatus called "grammar". Jerome also learned Greek, but yet had no thought of studying the Greek Fathers, or any Christian writings.

After several years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier "on the semi-barbarous banks of the Rhine" where he seems to have first taken up theological studies, and where he copied, for his friend Rufinus, Hilary's commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia where he made many Christian friends.

Some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he made the longest stay, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once. During one of these illnesses (about the winter of 373-374) he had a vision which determined him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to the things of God. In any case he seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the Bible, under the impulsion of Apollinaris of Laodicea, then teaching in Antioch and not yet suspected of heresy.

Seized with the desire for a life of ascetic penance, Jerome went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southwest of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid, from the number of hermits inhabiting it. During this period, he found time for study and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew; and at this time he seems to have been in relation with the Jewish Christians in Antioch.

Returning to Antioch in 378, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently with some unwillingness and on condition that he still continue his ascetic life. Soon afterward he went to Constantinople to pursue his study of Scripture under the instruction of Gregory Nazianzen for about two years. The next three years (382-385) he was in Rome again, in close intercourse with Pope Damasus and the leading Roman Christians. Invited there originally to the synod of 382 held for the purpose of ending the schism of Antioch, he made himself indispensable to Damasus, and took a prominent place in his councils.

Among other duties he undertook the revision of the text of the Latin Bible on the basis of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint, in order to put an end to the marked divergences in the current western texts. This commission determined the course of his scholarly activity for many years, and is his most important contribution to Biblical studies. Jerome exercised an important influence during these three years, to which, outside of his unusual learning, his zeal for ascetic strictness and the realization of the monastic ideal contributed not a little.

He was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women, including some from the noblest patrician families, such as the widows Marcella and Paula, with their daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. The resulting inclination of these women for the monastic life, and his unsparing criticism of the life of the secular clergy, brought a growing hostility against him amongst the clergy and their supporters. Soon after the death of his patron Damasus (December 10, 384), and having lost his necessary protection, Jerome left his position at Rome.

In August 385 Jerome returned to Antioch, accompanied by his brother Paulinianus and several friends, and followed a little later by Paula and Eustochium, who had resolved to leave their patrician surroundings and to end their days in the Holy Land. In the winter of 385 Jerome accompanied them and acted as their spiritual adviser. The pilgrims, joined by Bishop Paulinus of Antioch, visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the holy places of Galilee, and then went to Egypt, the home of the great heroes of the ascetic life.

In Alexandria Jerome listened to the blind catechist Didymus the Blind expounding the prophet Hosea and telling his reminiscences of Anthony the Great, who had died thirty years before. He spent some time in Nitria, admiring the disciplined community life of the numerous inhabitants of that "city of the Lord," but detecting even there "concealed serpents," i.e., the influence of the theology of Origen. Jerome was back in Palestine in 388, and settled down for the remainder of his life in a hermit's cell near Bethlehem, surrounded by a few friends, both men and women (including Paula and Eustochium), to whom he acted as priestly guide and teacher.

Amply provided by Paula with the means of livelihood and of increasing his collection of books, he led a life of incessant activity in literary production. To these last thirty-four years of his career belong the most important of his works - his translation of the Old Testament from the original text, the best of his scriptural commentaries, his catalogue of Christian authors, and the dialogue against the Pelagians, the literary perfection of which even a controversial opponent recognized. To this period also belong the majority of his passionate polemics, which distinguished him among the orthodox Fathers, including notably the treatises occasioned by the Origenistic controversy against Bishop John II of Jerusalem and his early friend Rufinus. As a result of his writings against Pelagianism, a body of excited partisans broke into the monastic buildings in 416, set them on fire, attacked the inmates and killed a deacon, which forced Jerome to seek safety in a neighboring fortress.

Jerome died near Bethlehem on September 30, 420. The date of his death is given by the Chronicon of Prosper of Aquitaine. His remains, originally buried at Bethlehem, are said to have been later translated to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, though other places in the West claim some relics -- the cathedral at Nepi boasting the possession of his head, which, according to another tradition, is in the Escorial.