St. Jerome was a priest, monk, biblical scholar, and Doctor of the Church whose study and translation of Sacred Scripture profoundly shaped Western Christianity. He devoted his learning to the service of the Church and taught that knowledge of Scripture must lead to knowledge and love of Christ. As Catholics, we pray the novena to St. Jerome for fidelity to God’s word, perseverance in study, repentance, and courage in defending the faith.
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St. Jerome was born around 347 in Stridon, on the border of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He received a classical education in Rome and was baptized as a young man. Drawn toward an ascetic life, he spent time in the East, lived as a hermit in the desert of Chalcis, and deepened his knowledge of Greek while beginning the study of Hebrew. He was ordained a priest and later served Pope St. Damasus I in Rome. At the pope’s request, St. Jerome revised the Latin text of the Gospels. His wider work of translation and revision, carried out with attention to Hebrew and Greek sources, became a foundation of the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate.
After leaving Rome in 385, St. Jerome traveled to the Holy Land and Egypt before settling in Bethlehem. There he lived near the Grotto of the Nativity, guided monastic communities, welcomed pilgrims, wrote biblical commentaries, and defended the Catholic faith in the controversies of his time. His forceful temperament sometimes led to sharp disputes, yet his life also shows sustained repentance, discipline, and submission of great learning to the word of God. His statement that "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ" was later cited by the Second Vatican Council. St. Jerome died in Bethlehem on September 30, 419 or 420. The Church honors him as one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church and as a patron of biblical scholars and translators. The novena is prayed from September 21 through September 29 in preparation for his feast on September 30.
