Today, September 30, is the memorial of Saint Jerome.
Doctor of the Church.
Born to a rich pagan family, Jerome led a wild youth. He studied in Rome and became a lawyer. He converted and joined the Church in theory, and was baptized in 365, but it was only when he began his study of theology that he had a true conversion and the faith became integral to his life.
He became a monk. When he needed time alone for his study of Scripture, he lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts where, so the story goes, he took out a thorn from a lion‘s paw. For many years, the lion became his constant companion.
Jerome was a priest and a student of St. Gregory of Nazianzen. He was secretary to Pope Damasus I who tasked him to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result was 30 years of work, now known as the Vulgate translation, the standard Latin version for over a millennia, and which is still in use today.
The final 34 years of his life were spent in the Holy Land, writing and translating historical and biographical texts, Origen’s works, among others.
He lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse, writing and translating works of history, biography, the writings of Origen, and much more.
He is one of the four Great Latin Fathers along with Saints Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII.