Christian History Home > Issue 64 > Wordly Monk
Wordly Monk
Jerome was a disciplined ascetic who was on top of current affairs.
Kelvin Crow and Mark Galli | posted 10/01/1999 12:00AM
Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, a.k.a. Jerome, was probably the greatest Christian scholar in the world by his mid-30s. Perhaps the greatest figure in the history of Bible translation, he spent three decades creating a Latin version that would be the standard for more than a millennium.
But this monk was no bookish egghead nor solitary man of prayer. Though an extreme ascetic, he could show a nasty disposition, and he wasn't afraid to enter the public fray.
Jerome was born around 345 to wealthy Christian parents in Stridon, Dalmatia (in modern Slovenia), and educated in Rome, where he studied grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. There he was baptized at age 19.
He followed his studies with travel. But instead of discovering the sensuous pleasures of the empire, Jerome found himself drawn to the ascetics he met along the way, including those in Trier (now in southwest Germany) and Aquileia, Italy, where he joined a group of elite ascetics. When this group disbanded, Jerome went to Antioch to ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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