It is not difficult to ascertain St. Jerome’s title as Father of Biblical Science. As the original translator of the biblical texts into the Latin Vulgate Bible, he is considered the first and very possibly most important biblical scholar in the history of the Catholic Church. It would be William Tyndale, a Protestant, who would later translate that same bible into the language of the people making it possible for laymen and women along with clergy to read the word of God.
St. Jerome Born as Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius
St. Jerome was born at Strido with the name Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius. He studied under Donatus in Rome all the great skills of his day but especially languages like Latin and Greek.
Profound Ascetic
In 360 Pope Liberius baptized him and he became an ascetic. He had a profound vision of Jesus Christ wherein the Lord told him to go to Chalcis in the Syrian desert. He had this vision after suffering from a serious illness. St. Jerome was a learner, and he continued learning from the great writers of the church even in the desert. So much so that he was ordained upon his return from the desert by St. Paulinus.
St. Jerome a Warrior Against the Meletian Schism
He began his fight for the church quickly when he took on the Meletian schism in a treatise title Altercatio luciferiani et orthodoxi. Meletius was a bishop in Lycopolis who went outside his own boundaries of reign to ordain priests which was obviously against the canons. But worse yet, Meletians were known to sometimes sacrifice to idols. The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. attempted to suppress the Meletians through a canon, but were not completely successful.
Translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible
He went through many persecutions much like many of the doctors of the church, fighting heresies and their beliefs through much of his life. In 386 A.D., he settled at Bethlehem with a group of Christians. Three convents for women were established and a monastery of which St. Jerome was the abbot. It was here that he did his work of translating the bible from the original languages into Latin, which was the only universal language of the time. This great work became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible.
The Apostolic Canons can be found in the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions.
St. Jerome’s Written Works
Latin Vulgate Bible - one of the first translations of the Bible. Altercatio luciferiani et orthodoxi, Adversum Helvidium, 120 Letters, Dialogi contra Pelagianos, Apologetici adversus Rufinum, Contra Vigilantium, Adversus Jovianaianum
The Seventh Doctor of the Catholic Church
The Ninth Doctor of the Catholic Church
Sources: The 33 Doctors of the Church – By Fr. Christopher Rengers, A Catholic Dictionary – By William Addis, The Writings of the Early Church Fathers (Thirty Eight Volumes): Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post Nicene – Hendrickson Publishers, Dictionary of Saints – By John J. Delaney, Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics – By Chas S. Clifton, A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham – Edited by Eugene R. Fairweather, A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present – By Bernhard Lohse
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