St. Jerome and the Roman Catholic Church

            Born in Stridon, near Aquileia, around 346 or 347, St. Jerome observed the violent disintegration of Greco-Roman civilization. His family was Catholic and fairly wealthy, and Jerome was well educated at home and in Rome, primarily in grammar and rhetoric. Although he describes his early life as one of idleness and lack of scholarly ambition, his increasing interest in ecclesiastical literature and scriptural studies was stimulated by his interaction with a close group of friends who lived in Aquileia and included Chromatius (the future bishop of Aquileia), Jerome's foster brother, Bosons, and Heliodorus (the future bishop of Altinum).
             In 373 Jerome left his companions to travel to Antioch, where he fell into ill-health; in a famous letter to Eustochium Jerome described his feverish experience of being transported to the throne of God and accused of neglecting religious works for secular literature. In response, Jerome vowed never to study secular literature, but it was a promise he kept imperfectly. Although he read Classical literature for the rest of his life, Jerome devoted himself to studying the Bible and other religious writings. He also resolved to lead an ascetic life, and the following year began a monastic life in the desert of Chalcis. Jerome's tendency to incite feelings of enmity eventually led him to leave Chalcis in 379 for Antioch and then Constantinople; during this period he studied under church scholars and began translating the Chronicle of Eusebius (382).
             In 382 Jerome returned to Rome, where his reputation as a Biblical scholar grew, and where, observing the last, decadent stages of the Roman Empire, Jerome reaffirmed his commitment to monasticism and asceticism. Some biographers of Jerome have claimed that he assisted Pope Damasus, and that, in the Roman hierarchy, he was to have directly succeeded him. However, Jerome's own writings suggest that he played a less prominent role in the ecclesiastical council.