September 25, 2022 - Pator Message
04/19/2024“Every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (Matthew 13:52).
This Friday, September 30, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Jerome. That probably doesn’t mean much to most of us, because we don’t know who St. Jerome is. If we did, this day would mean a lot to us because of the amazing gift Jerome gave to the Church, so allow me to introduce him.
Jerome was born in the mid 4th century in modern day Croatia. He spent his youth in frivolous and even scandalous pursuits, like his better known contemporary, St. Augustine, until, after receiving what he described as a divine vision, he was baptized and began a new life as a dedicated Christian, priest, and monk. He undertook studies in some of the great learning centers of his time, including Rome, and under some of the greatest teachers of his time, including St. Valerian and St. Gregory of Nanzianzus.
He showed a special talent for languages, and, realizing the problem of having many, often insufficient and inaccurate translations of the books of Scripture circulating at that time, which fueled various heresies, he took on the task of translating the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments, from the best manuscripts available of Greek and Hebrew into the language of the Roman Empire, Latin.
Working on and off on this project for many years, Jerome finally completed his translation in 405 AD. This translation of the Bible became known as the Vulgate, from the Latin “vulgaris”, meaning common or ordinary, because it was in the common language of the people. While other translations continued to circulate, the Vulgate became more and more widely accepted until, following the Protestant Reformation, which was spearheaded by another Scripture scholar, Martin Luther, who wrote his own translation of the Bible, the Church recognized the Vulgate as the official and authoritative translation in the 16th century.
While it has been somewhat surpassed in modern times by more recent biblical scholarship and translations, the importance of the Vulgate in the history of our Church and our faith has not diminished. An updated version is still used as a vital reference for liturgical translations, and the fact that we as a Church have one translation of God’s Word that can serve as a true North when navigating the often confusing array of versions of the Bible out there today helps keep us all united in the one faith born of that Word. We have St. Jerome to thank for that. So, this week, maybe spend a little time reading the Bible in his honor and voice a prayer thanking God for blessing us with such a dedicated scholar and saint.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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