Feast of St. Jerome
Today the Church celebrates the life and heroic virtue of St. Jerome.(347-420 AD) He is a Doctor of the Church and first translated the bible into the Latin, later known as the Vulgate. He argued with the pope regarding what should be in the canon and initially was sceptical that the deuterocanonicals should be included. (A point that detractors of the Catholic canon often emphasize to support Luther's removal of the deuterocanonical books and relegating them to the "apocrypha.") Finally, however, he relinguished his personal judgement to the authority of the pope and the 7 deuterocanonical books remained in the canon of scripture.
He was a defender of orthodoxy and fought against the Arian heresy. He also defended the veneration of relics and the communion of saints and his statement below is a strong argument for the communion of saints and relic veneration to be historically, an early devotion of the Church with roots to the fourth century and earlier.
"We do not worship the relics of the martyrs, but honor them in our worship of Him whose martyrs they are. We honor the servants in order that the respect paid to them may be reflected back to the Lord." Honoring them, he said, was not idolatry because no Christian had ever adored the martyrs as gods; on the other hand, they pray for us. "If the Apostles and martyrs, while still living on earth, could pray for other men, how much more may they do it after their victories? Have they less power now that they are with Jesus Christ?" He told Paula, after the death of her daughter Blesilla, "She now prays to the Lord for you, and obtains for me the pardon of my sins."
He was a defender of orthodoxy and fought against the Arian heresy. He also defended the veneration of relics and the communion of saints and his statement below is a strong argument for the communion of saints and relic veneration to be historically, an early devotion of the Church with roots to the fourth century and earlier.
"We do not worship the relics of the martyrs, but honor them in our worship of Him whose martyrs they are. We honor the servants in order that the respect paid to them may be reflected back to the Lord." Honoring them, he said, was not idolatry because no Christian had ever adored the martyrs as gods; on the other hand, they pray for us. "If the Apostles and martyrs, while still living on earth, could pray for other men, how much more may they do it after their victories? Have they less power now that they are with Jesus Christ?" He told Paula, after the death of her daughter Blesilla, "She now prays to the Lord for you, and obtains for me the pardon of my sins."
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 5:29 PM
5 Comments:
Do you have a citation for this quote? I love quotes like this, but I can't take them to my Protestant friends without being able to prove their authenticity.
And as Fr. Pacwa said today, if such a cranky guy like he could become a saint and Doctor of the Church, then there's hope for the rest of us.
Habemus:
hereis the link . It's from Letter against Vigilantius to Riparius from St. Jerome.
Note: it is from a Protestant source, CCEL, so you won't be accused of tweaking it to "read Catholic."
Hope it is of use. God bless
yes Nancy. He even struggles with things that us common folks struggle with. Did you ever read about his "visions of the roman maidens" coming to him in the desert? Wheew! He really had to combat those things with "throwing himself at the feet of Christ" in his words.
St Jerome Ora pro nobis.
Amen Nancy! I cling to that hope. If some curmudgeon and "name slinger" like St Jerome can become such a Saint, then our puny lives will one day count, our struggles will one day be made to shine like the sun, for our sins will be blotted out, our tears collected in a bottle and we'll make it to heaven holding onto that hope. We can't be "perfect" here, but we aspire to "become what God desires of us"...and many of us might have to suffer purgatory here and beyond. I don't want to "aim" for purgatory, but heaven. However, I'm grateful to think of purgatory, the blessing of such a crucible, for without that, there'd be not much hope. St Jerome, pray for those of us, who like me, tend to get irritated easily, lose patience quickly and at times, seem to have a temper fuse no longer than a sneeze. I know many more Saints who struggled with "short fuses" and impatience. In fact the desire to change, and become holy is itself a gift of God, so I thank him that I "once didn't care, but now I care a lot"...as David said, "My sins are ever before me" and may mine be always in front of my nose, too, to keep me humble before my Lord and clinging to his robe, just to touch a thread of his garment is more than enough for me. Gee, I'm blabby today. Sorry. Fabulous posts, TJ. : )
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