The Saints: St. Jerome

Born Circa 345 - 420 / Feast - Sept. 30

A father and doctor of the Church, Dalmatian-born Jerome was educated in Rome. He became a monk around 370 and spent four years with hermits in the Syrian desert. Despite his objections, the bishop of Antioch ordained him a priest, but he apparently never celebrated Mass. In Rome in 382, this scholar of Greek, Latin and Hebrew began his greatest work, the Latin Vulgate Bible. He lived his last 30 years in a Bethlehem monastery, translating, teaching and writing. In art, the combative Jerome often is pictured with a lion.