Doctors of the Church: St Jerome
His life was essentially devoted to scholarship, and a success of it he certainly made. A number of obstacles, you could say, at times disrupted the flow of his work, such as having to move cities, attempts to get him ordained, which he eventually was after pressure from Pope Damasus, accusations from enemies both inside and outside the Church, and the list continues. Nonetheless, he effectively and wholeheartedly devoted himself tirelessly to his scholarly endeavours, in a manner which ought to inspire all engaged in academic study.
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”–this familiar saying comes to us from St Jerome, and we ought not to be surprised. It is difficult to see how one could so entirely offer one’s life to the translation and exegesis of Holy Scripture, as St Jerome did, without a intimate and pining love for the Word made flesh: Christ Jesus. As a Doctor of the Church we rightly honour him as a teacher of Scripture, but we ought also to honour him, I would suggest, as an unreserved and devoted lover of Scripture.
Also in the Doctors of the Church series:
- St Ambrose, by Br Vincent Antony Löning
- St Athanasius, by Br Thomas Thérèse Mannion
- St Augustine, by Br Andy Opsahl
- St Basil, by Br Vincent Antony Löning
- St Gregory the Great, by Br Albert Robertson
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