St Jerome: Celebrating an abandoned saint

 St Jerome by Caravaggio

 

Today the Church celebrates one of the great saints of the Church, Jerome*. I say the Church, the Catholic Church marks this day with due dignity (the prayers and antiphons, the sentences that precede the Benedictus and Magnificat, are all proper to his commemoration). but for some reason the most recent Anglican Lectionary leaves him with the very least of commemorations, a mention of his name in the calendar, but nothing more. Even the Book of Common Prayer affords this saint a Colleca

Jerome is a name we don't often remember, but it is he who gave the Chutch the Bible in the vernacular, in the language of the people, as it is he who translated it into Latin, producing what we know today as the Vulgate translation. (It is called the Vulgate becaus it was translated into the common, vulgar language of the people of the time.) Divines such as Coverdale and Launcelot Andrewes, who translated the Bible into English owe St Jerome a debt of gratitude for this work of divine education. This also gives the lie to the myth that the Reformation sawthe first translations of the Bible into the language of the people. This had been going on since the Bible was first composed, not just by the Western Church, but also by the Eastern, in particular through thr work of Ss Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavic people, who produced a whole new alphabet in order to share the gospel message and liturgy with them.

So why is Jerome controversial. Not to put too fine a point on it, if he were around today he'd give Donald Trump a run for his money in terms of purple prose and fiery rhetoric. Jerome could start a fight in an empty room, and quite often did so. He was in correspondence with many of the great churchmen of his day, and he argued viciously with them. He even tried to start an argument with St Augustine of Hippo, who read between the lines and saw both how brilliant and volatile St Jerome was, and sought to calm his rhetoric in order to have a sensible conversation. He was also an ascetic, and keen (perhaps too keen) to encourage ohters to follow his way of life.) Indeed so devout and withdrawn was his life, that he spent the last 30 years of it living in a cave adjacent to the grotto**of the Nativity in Bethlehem where Jesus was born, and it is here that he worked on his translation of the Bible.

St Jerome died on this day in the year 420.

St Jerome them was a complex character, just as we are today. He was not afraid of fiery language, but he also had a deep devotion to God. We should not be afraid of venerating difficult saints, in fact we should make the effort to do so, in being difficult they challenge us to look more deeply at ourselves. (For instance we'd now consider many of the Church Fathers, St John Chrysostom who is one of the greatest amongst them, as being deeply antisemitic. That we recognise that teaches us to look more closely at his writings and our own behaviour, but also to seek healing for the sins of the past.)

Let us pray.

Almighty, ever-living God,

you endowed Saint Jerome with a deep reverence for Holy Scripture,

which he loved with all his heart.

Sustain us ever more with your word

and help us to find in it the source of life.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

* In Greek he is known as Hieronymus, the name also used for the Prophet Jeremiah. If you've ever been to a Greek Orthodox service then you can be left wondering, as I was, as to who the Prophet Hieronymus is.

** Whilst we remember Jesus being born in a stable, that stable has been identified as a cave or grotto in Bethlehem - the people of the time would have used such caves as safe and cool places to store produce and animals. (Why build a stable building when you have a suitable and handy cave just nest door!