Principal Works

Description

Fremantle et al.'s Engl. transl. of St. Jerome De Virginitate Servanda (Letter 22 to Eustochium), Adkin's commentary

contains his Life of Paulus the First Hermit (c. 375 A.D.; PDF pp. 704-710), the monk who lived 113 years and whom St. Anthony met in the desert
In his preface to his commentary on Jeremiah, he insults the heretic Pelagius, insult ing him as "Scotorum pultibus prægravatus" ("the hulking brute stuffed with his Scots’ porridge", also translated variously as "The stupid fool, labouring under his load of Scotch porridge", "made fat with Scotch flummery", and "having his belly filled and his head bedulled with Scotch porridge"). ☺
also contains his Adversus Jovinianum , which mentions Aristotle's (extent?) work περί συμβιώσεως άνδρός καί γυναικός (De matrimonio) (cf. Deming p. 62 = PDF p. 86 fn. 43)
Pace Fr. Unger's book on the single life, which says "(A.D. 393), where, however, he somewhat exaggerates the excellence of virginity.", I think St. Jerome is more balanced than St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nyssa, who both seem to depreciate marriage much more than some claim St. Jerome does.
Interesting points:

1. St. Jerome (§7) does an excellent job relating 1 Peter 3:7 ("…ut non impediantur orationes vestræ") to 1 Cor. 7:5, giving some insight into exactly why coitus impedes prayer.
2. Animals in Noah's ark come in pairs, division seemingly not good (§16): "we must observe, at least if we would faithfully follow the Hebrew, that while Scripture on the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days relates that, having finished the works of each, 'God saw that it was good,' on the second day it omitted this altogether, leaving us to understand that two is not a good number because it destroys unity, and prefigures the marriage compact."
3. §20: "Moses who when he saw a great vision and heard an angel, or the Lord speaking in the bush, [Ex. 3:5] could not by any means approach to him without first loosing the latchet of his shoe, that is, putting off the bonds of marriage".
4. §26: In the context of St. Peter being married and St. John not, St. Jerome argues St. John had more merit because "the defilement of marriage is not washed away by the blood of martyrdom" seems to imply (pace Summa suppl. q. 96 a. 12) that martyrdom is not of more merit than virginity.

5. §37 alludes to 1 Cor. 15:44 ("…εἰ ἔστιν σῶμα ψυχικόν, ἔστιν καὶ πνευματικόν ") and mentions v. 47 ff.

6. In John1:13, the underlying plural (αἱμάτων) is in fact a Semiticgrammatical feature, cf. in the Psalms (and elsewhere in Scripture), for ex. inPsalm 59/58:2 (lit. “men of bloods,” דָמִים isliterally a plural).

Spiritual adoption is indeed a great and truly astounding gift to us, incomparablygreater than any biological filiation (God being by essence spiritual Himself, and intending for usto be like Him, Gen 1:26-27, 1 John 3:2). Whereas the worldly culture around us appears to be increasingly concerned and hyping about DNA tests, genealogy research, and all manner of naturalistic, ultimately vain pursuits…

Carissimi,nunc filii Dei sumus : et nondum apparuit quid erimus. Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus :quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.

§47 is the only source of Aristotle's disciple Theophrastus's "golden book" ("worth its weight in gold") On Marriage, the ending of which ("Indeed, the surest way of having a good heir is to ruin your fortune in a good cause while you live, not to leave the fruit of your labour to be used you know not how.") is remniscent of Ecclesiastes 2:18-19: "…being like to have an heir after me, Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous: and is there anything so vain?"

• cf. Lessius, S.J. ch. 5: "And as for heires, our friends & our neighbours whom we loue, are better & more sure heyres vnto vs, being chosen thereunto by vs freely, thē those whome wee are constreyned to haue whether we will or no: though indeed it be a for more assured inheritance to make our selues our owne heires, (by doyng good workes whilst we liue, (for otherwise we do but abuse the same) then to leaue it, being gotten all by our owne industry and pains, to the vncertein vses of any others whatsoeuer."

Adversus Jovinianum bk. II c. 5-17 discusses how there is a difference between fasting and eating food in thanksgiving. St. Jerome gives many examples of vegan/vegetarian philosophers and cultures of antiquity.

Dicæarchus in his book of Antiquities, describing Greece, relates that under Saturn, that is in the Golden Age, when the ground brought forth all things abundantly, no one ate flesh, but every one lived on field produce and fruits which the earth bore of itself. Xenophon in eight books narrates the life of Cyrus, King of the Persians, and asserts that they supported life on barley, cress, salt, and black bread. Both the aforesaid Xenophon, Theophrastus, and almost all the Greek writers testify to the frugal diet of the Spartans. Chæremon the Stoic, a man of great eloquence, has a treatise on the life of the ancient priests of Egypt, who, he says, laid aside all worldly business and cares, and were ever in the temple, studying nature and the regulating causes of the heavenly bodies; they never had intercourse with women; they never from the time they began to devote themselves to the divine service set eyes on their kindred and relations, nor even saw their children; they always abstained from flesh and wine, on account of the light-headedness and dizziness which a small quantity of food caused, and especially to avoid the stimulation of the lustful appetite engendered by this meat and drink. They seldom ate bread, that they might not load the stomach. And whenever they ate it, they mixed pounded hyssop with all that they took, so that the action of its warmth might diminish the weight of the heavier food. They used no oil except with vegetables, and then only in small quantities, to mitigate the unpalatable taste. What need, he says, to speak of birds, when they avoided even eggs and milk as flesh. The one, they said, was liquid flesh, the other was blood with the color changed? Their bed was made of palm-leaves, called by them baiæ : a sloping footstool laid upon the ground served for a pillow, and they could go without food for two or three days. The humours of the body which arise from sedentary habits were dried up by reducing their diet to an extreme point.

Josephus in the second book of the history of the Jewish captivity, and in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, and the two treatises against Apion, describes three sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. On the last of these he bestows wondrous praise because they practised perpetual abstinence from wives, wine, and flesh, and made a second nature of their daily fast. Philo, too, a man of great learning, published a treatise of his own on their mode of life. Neanthes of Cizycus, and Asclepiades of Cyprus, at the time when Pygmalion ruled over the East, relate that the eating of flesh was unknown. Eubulus, also, who wrote the history of Mithras in many volumes, relates that among the Persians there are three kinds of Magi, the first of whom, those of greatest learning and eloquence, take no food except meal and vegetables. At Eleusis it is customary to abstain from fowls and fish and certain fruits. Bardesanes, a Babylonian, divides the Gymnosophists of India into two classes, the one called Brahmans, the other Samaneans, who are so rigidly self-restrained that they support themselves either with the fruit of trees which grow on the banks of the Ganges, or with common food of rice or flour, and when the king visits them, he is wont to adore them, and thinks the peace of his country depends upon their prayers. Euripides relates that the prophets of Jupiter in Crete abstained not only from flesh, but also from cooked food. Xenocrates the philosopher writes that at Athens out of all the laws of Triptolemus only three precepts remain in the temple of Ceres: respect to parents, reverence for the gods, and abstinence from flesh. Orpheus in his song utterly denounces the eating of flesh. […]

re: Against Helvidius: 3. In support of his preference of virginity to marriage, Jerome argues that not only Mary but Joseph also remained in the virgin state (19)
These §§ are St. Jerome's brief commentary on 1 Cor. 7:that, though marriage may sometimes be a holy estate, it presents great hindrances to prayer (20), and the teaching of Scripture is that the states of virginity and continency are more accordant with God’s will than that of marriage (21, 22).
§22 (p. 213D // DjVu p. 113) regards the divisus est (St. Jerome has: "Et divisus est mulier" in 1 Cor. 7:32-33) the verses of which St. Jerome seems to divide differently, and the English translater here really butchers:"He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And there is a difference also between the wife and the virgin. …"
See DjVu p. 216-262 note (f) of the Latin:"Divisa est mulier, et Virgo. Quae…" is old Italian version, but Vulgate is: "…et divisus est. [1Cor 7:34] Et mulier innupta…"

St. Jerome wrote against the heretic Vigilantius, who opposed virginity:

to follow out your [Vigilantius's] argument, virginity would not deserve our approbation. For if all were virgins, we should have no marriages; the race would perish […] The truth is, virtue is a rare thing and not eagerly sought after by the many. Would that all were as the few of whom it is said: “Many are called, few are chosen.” [Mt. 10:16, 22:14] The prison would be empty.

St. Thomas Aquinas, quoting what St. Jerome wrote here, agrees that virgins and others (e.g., the religious, bishops) living in a state of perfection will be rare (Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem , An Apology for the Religious Orders II cap. 6 ad 12):

The works of perfection are so difficult that but very few attempt to accomplish them. There is, therefore, no grounds for fearing that the world will cease to exist on account of the perfection of its inhabitants.

ref:166.1 is St. Jerome's short biography The Life of Malchus, Captive Monk , who was even married yet lived perpetually continently.