Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus (Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος) , known as St. Jerome, was born at Stridon circa 347 A.D. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He was baptized as a Christian about 360 or 366 A.D., when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies. He studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned the Latin and Greek languages.
Jerome is recognized by the Catholic Church as a patron saint of translators, librarians and encyclopedists, and Doctor of the Church, and the Vulgate Bible translated by Jerome is an important text in Catholicism. He is also recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is known as St. Jerome of Stridonium or Blessed Jerome.
Jerome ranks as one of the four Doctors of the Latin Church, and his influence was the most lasting; for, though he was not a great original thinker like Augustin, nor a champion like Ambrose, nor an organiser and spreader of Christianity like Gregory, his influence outlasted theirs. Their influence in the Middle Ages was confined to a comparatively small circle; but the monastic institutions which he introduced, the value for relics and sacred places which he defended, the deference which he showed for Episcopal authority, especially that of the Roman Pontiff, were the chief features of the Christian system for a thousand years; his Vulgate was the Bible of Western Christendom till the Reformation. To the theologian he is interesting rather for what he records than for any contribution of his own to the science; but to the historian his vivid descriptions of persons and things at an important though melancholy epoch of the world are of inestimable value.
St. Jerome’s importance lies in the facts:
(1) That he was the author of the Vulgate Translation of the Bible into Latin,
(2) That he bore the chief part in introducing the ascetic life into Western Europe,
(3) That his writings more than those of any of the Fathers bring before us the general as well as the ecclesiastical life of his time.
It was a time of special interest, the last age of the old Greco-Roman civilization, the beginning of an altered world.
It included the reigns of
- Julian (361–63),
- Valens (364–78),
- Valentinian (364–75),
- Gratian (375–83),
- Theodosius (379–95) and his sons,
- the definitive establishment of orthodox Christianity in the Empire,
- and the sack of Rome by Alaric (410).
It was the age of the great Fathers, of Ambrose and Augustine in the West, of Basil, the Gregories, and Chrysostom in the East.
With several of these Jerome was brought into personal contact;
- of Ambrose he often speaks in his writings (Apol. i. 2, iii. 14, Pref. to Origen and S. Luke; and the Pref. to Didymus on the Holy Spirit, quoted in Rufinus’ Apology, ii. 24, 43; also On Illust. Men, c. 124);
- with Augustine he carried on an important correspondence;
- he studied under Gregory Nazianzen at the time of the Council at Constantinople, 381;
- he was acquainted with Gregory of Nyssa (Illust. Men, c. 128);
- he translated the diatribe of Theophilus of Alexandria against Chrysostom (214, 215).
Jerome was born in the troubled times which followed the death of Constantine (337 A.D.), and before Constantius became sole Emperor (353 A.D.). He was still a schoolboy during the reign of Julian (361–363 A.D.), and when he heard of his death. During his student life at Rome, Jovian and Valentinian were Emperors, and at Treves, where he next sojourned, the latter Emperor held his court. His first letter refers to a scene in which Ambrose, then Prefect of Liguria, seems to have taken part (370 A.D.), and his settlement at Aquileia synchronises with the law of Valentinian restraining legacies to the clergy (370 A.D.).
Jerome went to the East in the year of the death of Athanasius (373 A.D.), and during his stay in the desert and at Antioch (374-380 A.D.) occurred the death of Valentinian, the defeat and death of his brother Valens in the battle of Adrianople, the elevation of Theodosius to the purple, and the call of Gregory Nazianzen to Constantinople. He was ordained by Paulinus, one of the three Bishops of Antioch, and studied under Apollinaris, thus touching on both the chief points for which the Council of Constantinople was called (381 A.D.). At that Council he was probably present, being, as stated above, a disciple of its president, Gregory Nazianzen.
Jerome was also present at the Western Council held the next year in Rome under Pope Damasus, whose trusted counsellor he became. His later life, spent at Bethlehem (386–420 A.D.), witnessed the division of the Empire between the sons of Theodosius, the fall of the Prefect Rufinus, to whom Jerome had been denounced, the triumph of Stilicho and his death, Alaric’s sack of Rome (410 A.D.) and his death, the revolt of Heraclian, the marriage of Alaric’s successor, Adolphus, with the Emperor’s sister, Galla Placidia, and the death of Arcadius (408 A.D.); in ecclesiastical matters, it witnessed the rise of Chrysostom (398 A.D.) and his exile (403 A.D.) and death (407) A.D., the condemnation of Origenism (400 A.D.), and the Pelagian controversy (415 A.D.).
