Feast of St. Jerome

Today is the Feast of St. Jerome, saint and Doctor of the Church. He was a priest and secretary to Pope Damasus in the years 382 to 385. The painting of St. Jerome above is by Caravaggio and was painted in 1605.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. The Psalms and portions had been translated to Latin but not the complete group of books. Pope Damasus had St. Jerome produce a bible in the language that every day people could understand, Latin, and the Latin Vulgate bible became _the_ bible used within the Church. His insistence on using the oldest available original texts set a precedent for biblical study that influences us now with Church scholars learning Hebrew and Greek.

His great statement, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ", rings out strongly to the present time.

Baronius Press has an edition of the bible with the Latin Vulgate on one page, and the English translated Douay-Rheims version on the facing page. The translation of the Latin is very literal and give you a great feel for St. Jerome's writing. By having the texts side by side, it will also give you a chance to learn a little more Latin.

Information on this bible is available by clicking here.