St. Jerome
St. Jerome was born to a rich pagan family. He led a wild and misspent youth. He studied in Rome, Italy, and became a lawyer. He converted and joined the Church in theory, and was baptized in 365, but it was only when he began his study of theology that he had a true conversion, and the faith became integral to his life.
He became a monk, then, needing isolation for his study of Scripture, he lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts. There he is reported to have drawn a thorn from a lion’s paw; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years.
He was a student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen and secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned Jerome to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result was 30 years of work which we know as the Vulgate translation, the standard Latin version for over a millennia, and which is still in use today.
He was a friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium. Which resulted in an association that led to so much gossip that Jerome left Rome to return to desert solitude.
He lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse, writing and translating works of history, biography, the writings of Origen, and much more. St. Jerome is a doctor of the Church and Father of the Church.
Since his own time, he has been associated in the popular mind with scrolls, writing, cataloging, translating, which led to those who work in such fields taking him as their patron, a man who knew their lives and problems.
Taken from Laudate
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen