[Rank]
S. Hieronymi Presbyteris Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris;;Duplex;;3;;vide C5a

[Rule]
vide C5a;
9 lectiones

[Name]
Jerome

[Oratio]
O God, Who wast pleased to give unto thy Church thy blessed Confessor Jerome to be unto her a great teacher in the way of expounding thine Holy Scriptures, be entreated, we beseech thee, for that thy servant's sake, and grant unto us the strength to put in practice what he taught both by his doctrine and by his life.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Jerome was the son of one Eusebius, and was born at Sorigni, (a small town upon the confines) of Dalmatia, in the reign of the Emperor Constantius. He was baptised at Rome when a lad, and studied there, under the instruction of Donatus and other very learned personages. He travelled in Gaul for the sake of improving his mind, and there sought the friendship of diverse godly men learned in the Scriptures, and made with his own hand many copies of the holy books. He afterwards betook himself to Greece, where he attained eminence as a philosopher and orator, in the following of the most famous theologians. At Constantinople, in especial, he sat at the feet of Gregory of Nazianzus, from whom he professeth himself to have learnt his theology. Then, for godliness' sake, he went to see the home of the Lord Christ, and so throughout all Palestine. He witnesseth that this pilgrimage, wherein he got the help of the most learned of the Jews for the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, did him much good.

[Lectio5]
He withdrew himself into the wild deserts of Syria, where he passed four years in studying the Holy Scriptures and in considering the blessedness of heaven, afflicting his body by alway denying himself, by bitter tears, and by chastisement of the flesh. He was ordained Priest by Paulinus, Patriarch of Antioch. He went to Rome on account of the quarrelling of certain Bishops with Paulinus and Epiphanius, and there helped Pope Damasus in the writing of his letters upon Church affairs. But the longing for his old solitude came upon him, and he went back to Palestine, where, in the monastery at Bethlehem, built beside the cradle of the Lord Christ by the Lady Paula of Rome, he set himself to enter on earth upon the life of heaven, serving God in reading and writing without ceasing, regardless of the sufferings of a body tormented by diverse diseases and pains.

[Lectio6]
Hard questions upon the interpretation of the Holy Scripture were sent to him from all parts of the earth, as to an oracle. He was oftentimes consulted by Pope Damasus and by the holy Augustine upon the meaning of the most obscure passages of the Scripture, because of his extraordinary learning, and that he knew not the Latin and Greek tongues only, but also the Hebrew and Chaldee, and, as the same Augustine testifieth, had read nearly all writers. He attacked heretics with keen publications, and ever undertook the defence of the godly and Catholic. He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin, and, at the command of Damasus, reformed, according to the original Greek, the existing version of the New. Upon great part of the Scriptures he wrote commentaries. He translated likewise into Latin the works of many learned men, and himself contributed to the Christian life many monuments of his own wit. He lived to an extreme old age, and passed away to heaven, famous for learning and holiness, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius, (upon the 30th day of September, in the year of our Lord 420.) His body was buried at Bethlehem, but hath since been brought to Rome, where it lieth in the Church of St. Mary-at-the-Manger. 

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 5:13-19
At that time Jesus said unto His disciples: Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? And so on.
_
Homily by St. Jerome, Priest (at Bethlehem.)
!Book i. Comm. on Matth. v.
Apostles and teachers are called salt, for it is by them that the whole mass of mankind is seasoned. But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? If the teacher have gone astray, by what other teacher is he to be corrected? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. This is a figure taken from farming. Salt is used to savour food withal, and to preserve meat, but it hath no other use. In sooth, we read in the Scriptures of some cities which were sown with salt in the fury of their conquerors, that no bud of life might ever spring there again.

[Lectio8]
The teachers and Bishops, then, look well to it, seeing that mighty men shall be mightily tormented, (Wisd. vi. 7.) And there is no help for them, but they fall into hell with a greater crash. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light unto all that are in the house. Here He teacheth boldness in preaching, lest the Apostles should shrink away from fear, and be like unto candles under a bushel; but contrariwise should come forward with all freedom, and should proclaim upon the house-tops that which had been spoken in the ear in closets. (Luke xii. 3.)

[Lectio9]
Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. The meaning is, either that He was come to fulfill those things which others had prophesied concerning Him, or that He was come to give the full measure of those things which had been spoken darkly and imperfectly on account of the weakness of their hearers, making away with anger, forbidding to take eye for eye and tooth for tooth, and condemning the secret lusting of the heart. Till heaven and earth pass, (one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.) But there are promised unto us new heavens and a new earth, which the Lord God shall make. And if new things are to be created, old things must pass away.
&teDeum

[Lectio94]
Jerome, born at Stridon in Dalmatia, was baptized at Rome as a young man and studied the liberal arts with Donatus and other very learned men. In the service of religion, he travelled all over Palestine. Then he retired to the vast Syrian desert, where he spent four years in reading sacred Scripture and in the contemplation of the blessedness of heaven. Ordained priest by Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch, he went back to Palestine. There, near the crib of the Lord Christ in Bethlehem, he led a life patterned after that of heaven itself. He conquered the wiles of the devil with works of devotion and continual reading and writing. Questions on Holy Scripture were referred for explanation to him as to an oracle, being sent to him from all over the world. Pope Damasus and St. Augustine often consulted him on difficult passages in Scripture because of his singular learning and his knowledge not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew; and by command of Pope Damasus, he revised the translation of the New Testament to make it faithful to the Greek text and explained a great part of it. In extreme old age, he made the journey to heaven. His body was buried at Bethlehem and later taken to Rome and buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
&teDeum