JEROME, je-rom' or jer'en, Saint (Euse BIUS HIERONYMUS SOPHRONIUS), a father of the Latin Church: b. Stridon, between Styria and Hungary, about 331; d. Bethlehem 420. His parents educated him with care in literary studies and he read the Greek and Roman classics at Rome under the famous gram marian Donatus. He did not escape uncon taminated by the licentiousness of the capital; but soon became inclined to the Christian faith. The catacombs and tombs of the martyrs first excited his devotion. His travels on the Rhine and in Gaul made him acquainted with several Christian preachers, and he was eventually baptized. After a long residence at Aquileia he went in 373 to Antioch in Syria, where he passed through a spiritual crisis and renounced pagan learning, and in 374 retired to the deserts of Chalcis. Yhere he spent four years as a hermit in the severest mortifications and labori ous studies. He left his solitude again to be ordained priest at Antioch, but soon after went to Constantinople to enjoy the instruction of Gregory Nazianzus. In Rome, where he be came literary secretary to Pope Damasus, he made his appearance as a teacher. His exposi tions of the Holy Scriptures found favor with the Roman ladies, and many placed themselves under his spiritual direction. Marcella and Paula, rich patricians, are celebrated for the learned and ingenious theological epistles he wrote them, and for their rare monastic piety.
Paula accompanied him to Palestine in 386, where he founded a convent at Bethlehem; here he remained till his death. His writings show his active participation in the controversies of his day, and his letters give a very vivid idea of the condition of society at Rome. They are full of satiric strictures on the corrupt clergy, and are often as biting as Juvenal or Martial. Many of them are profoundly touching and full of fervent piety; others arc lampoons traversed with vehement invective with the spirit of Plautinian ribaldry. His Biblical labors are highly valuable; his Latin version of the Old Testament from the original language is a marvelous achievement, and it may be said that ecclesiastical Latin, originated with Jerome's Vulgate. His principal claim to the gratitude of the Church is that he was the founder of Latin monasticism. Consult Farrar, 'Lives of the Fathers> (1889) ; Largent, 'Saint Jerome' ; Sanders, 'Etudes sur Saint Jerome' (1903), and the English translation of the works in the 'Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers' (1892).