The Philosopher
St. Jerome
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- Illyrian
- Schools:
- Augustinianism, Christian Neoplatonism, Thomism, Scholasticism
- Branchs:
- Apologetics, Alchemy, Theology, Christian mysticism
- Period:
- Patristic age
The synopsis
Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, known as Saint Jerome, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian. Born in Stridon, possibly in Dalmatia, around 342–347 AD, he was of Illyrian ancestry. He was baptized in Rome around 360–369 while pursuing rhetorical and philosophical studies, where he was taught by the philologist Aelius Donatus. During his student years, he engaged in worldly pursuits but also experienced intense guilt, leading him to visit catacombs and reflect on mortality. He eventually converted to Christianity and sought a life of ascetic penance, spending time in the desert of Chalcis. Later, as a protégé of Pope Damasus I, he worked in Rome, revising the Vetus Latina Gospels. He is most famous for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate, which he undertook from Hebrew and Greek texts, completing it by 405. His commentaries on Scripture, historical writings, and letters, which often focused on Christian moral life and asceticism, particularly for women, are also significant. Jerome faced criticism for his associations and his outspoken critiques of the Roman clergy, which led to his departure from Rome. He is recognized as one of the four Great Latin Church Fathers and is venerated as a saint in various Christian traditions. His feast day is September 30th.
The works
Vulgate
De Viris Illustribus
Chronicon
Liber de Nominibus Hebraicis
Interpretationes nominum Hebraicorum
Commentaries on Scripture
Letters
Polemical essays
Historical essays
Hagiographic writings
The quotes
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.
Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price.
True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.
Why do you not practice what you preach.
The friendship that can cease has never been real.
My native land is a slave of heathenism, men's god is their belly, and they live only for the present. The richer a man, the holier.
Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield.
Those who persevere in sin are those who are held in abhorrence by God, but those who abandon the ways of sin are loved by the Lord.
Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a be general natural law.
Action without a name, a 'who' attached to it, is meaningless.
Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most.
Catch, then, O catch the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies!
Keep doing some kind of work, that the devil may always find you employed.
Haste is of the Devil.
I am like the sick sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way.
The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.
A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept.
The scars of others should teach us caution.
They talk like angels but they live like men.
It is not enough for us to restrain from doing evil, unless we shall also do good.
Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.
A fat stomach never breeds fine thoughts.
What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way.
Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.
Marriage is good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night.
Virginity can be lost by a thought.
Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life.
I am that prodigal son who wasted all the portion entrusted to me by my father. But I have not yet fallen at my father's knees. I have not yet begun to put away from me the enticements of my former riotous living.