What makes st jerome a saint

Jerome left Rome in settling in Bethlehem at the monastery he founded. It is apparent that his library was finally installed in this monastery since other scholars reported copying texts from this collection. During the 34 years he spent in Bethlehem, he continued his correspondence, prepared biblical commentaries, wrote historical treatises and translated the scriptures.

He completed his work on the Vulgate Bible in CE. His library was destroyed in when Bethlehem was sacked by bandits. Although St. Jerome has been referred to as the second most voluminous writer after St. Augustine in ancient Latin Christianity, reasons for recognition of him as the patron saint of librarians and libraries as well as archivists, translators and encyclopedists emanated from traditional lore.

Saint Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was fortunate. In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared himself well. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic.

He began his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia. After his preliminary education, he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very much in evidence. Seriously interested in learning, Jerome studied grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy with his teachers, read as much Latin literature as he could get his hands on, and spent a great deal of time in the catacombs under the city.

Toward the end of his schooling, he was formally baptized, possibly by the pope himself Liberius. For the next two decades, Jerome traveled widely.

In Treveris present-day Trier , he became extremely interested in monasticism. In Aquileia, he became associated with a group of ascetics who congregated around Bishop Valerianus; this group included Rufinus, a scholar who translated Origen a 3rd-century Alexandrian theologian.

Rufinus would become Jerome's close friend and, later, his adversary. Next, he went on a pilgrimage to the East, and when he reached Antioch in , he became a guest of the priest Evagrius. In early spring of , Jerome became severely ill and had a dream that would have a profound impact on him. In this dream, he was hauled in front of a heavenly court and accused of being a follower of Cicero a Roman philosopher from the first century B. When he woke up, Jerome vowed that he would never again read pagan literature -- or even own it.

Soon after, he wrote his first critical interpretive work: a commentary on the Book of Obadiah. Decades later, Jerome would minimize the importance of the dream and disown the commentary; but at the time, and for years afterward, he would not read the classics for pleasure. Not long after this experience, Jerome set off to become a hermit in the desert of Chalcis in the hopes of finding inner peace.

The experience proved to be a great trial: He had no guide and no experience in monasticism; his weak stomach rebelled against desert food; he spoke only Latin and was terribly lonely among Greek- and Syriac-speakers, and he was frequently plagued by temptations of the flesh.

Yet Jerome always maintained he was happy there. He dealt with his troubles by fasting and praying, learned Hebrew from a Jewish convert to Christianity, worked hard to practice his Greek, and kept in frequent correspondence with the friends he'd made in his travels.

He also had the manuscripts he'd brought with him copied for his friends and acquired new ones. After a few years, however, the monks in the desert became involved in a controversy concerning the bishopric of Antioch. A Westerner among Easterners, Jerome found himself in a difficult position and left Chalcis. He returned to Antioch, where Evagrius once again served as his host and introduced him to important Church leaders, including Bishop Paulinus.

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