Saint Jerome - Augustine Sokolovski

Troparion, Tone 3:

The Orthodox believers regard you as a great protector, O wise man of God, for you participate in divine Wisdom and are the interlocutor of the saints. Therefore, O great Jerome, pray to Christ God to grant us great mercy.

Kontakion, Tone 8:

Come, let us praise Jerome with hymns as a saint among saints and a righteous man among the righteous. He is the teacher and protector of the faithful. Let us call upon him with love: "Rejoice, wise Father!"

On June 28th, we honor Saint Jerome (347-420). In our Orthodox liturgical calendars, he is often called "blessed." This is why some believe that Jerome is not a saint like the others. But this is a serious mistake.

The adjective "blessed" is a very ancient title, used to designate those righteous people in the ancient Church whom everyone knew, and about whom there was no need to explain who they were or where exactly and in what rank they served God. The title "blessed" was a synonym for fame and, figuratively speaking, a reputation for lifetime holiness.

It is important to know that Jerome is a Father of the Church. The Orthodox Church owes him a lot. He was a friend and interlocutor of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, of St Augustine, the Bishop of Toulouse, St. Exuperius, whose name served as the basis for the surname of the great writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and of many others.

Jerome was also a great master of the spiritual life. His Letter to Heliodorus—a call to leave the world—is a masterpiece of the monastic thought of the ancient Church. Jerome was a priest of the Church of Antioch and an ascetic in Palestine.

Finally, Jerome studied languages and translated the Bible. He constantly repeated that different translations of the Bible were not only beneficial, but that they differed from one another and even contained errors. This is very important. For example, this does not exist in Islam, where the translation of the Quran is considered impossible and the historical-critical method is generally prohibited. Jerome is the originator of critical thinking regarding both secular and sacred matters. In this sense, he is even one of the founding fathers of our entire culture and civilization.