The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Canonised Father of the Church

Jerome

Also known as Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; Jerome of Stridon

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and the most learned Latin scholar of the ancient Church; combative, difficult, and the Western writer who pressed hardest for a shorter Old Testament.

  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.
  • Individual patristic opinionThe view of a particular Father that the Church has not received as its own teaching. The Fathers are not individually infallible: some speculated, some changed their minds, some were later corrected.
  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Disputed historyHistorians genuinely disagree. The page gives the range the evidence supports rather than choosing the most striking version.

Awaiting official-source verification Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (2)
  • No work of Jerome is archived here. Archive the Lives of Illustrious Men and a selection of the letters and prefaces, then upgrade this page.
  • Confirm the commemoration date and the Orthodox account of Jerome against an official Orthodox source.

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Dates
around 347 - 420 — Died at Bethlehem, probably on 30 September 420.
Region
Dalmatia, Rome, Syria, Bethlehem
Language of composition
Latin, Greek, Hebrew
Commemoration
15 June (Orthodox Church in America and other Orthodox jurisdictions) — Western commemoration is on 30 September. Julian-calendar jurisdictions observe the date thirteen days later on the civil calendar.

Life

Jerome studied at Rome, lived as an ascetic in the Syrian desert, served as secretary to Damasus of Rome, and settled at Bethlehem, where he spent the rest of his life translating, writing commentaries and quarrelling.

He learned Hebrew, which almost no Christian scholar of his time had done, and translated most of the Old Testament from it into Latin. The resulting version, with revisions, became the Vulgate and shaped Western Christianity for a millennium.

Works

Generally accepted as authentic

  • The Vulgate translation of the Scriptures — Not archived here.
  • Lives of Illustrious Men — A catalogue of Christian writers, modelled on Suetonius. Not archived here.
  • Letters and biblical commentaries — Not archived here.

Theological and spiritual contribution

Jerome's translation work changed what Western Christians read for over a thousand years, and his commentaries and letters preserve an enormous amount of information about Christian writers and communities.

He also argued, against Augustine among others, that the Old Testament books not found in the Hebrew should be distinguished from those that are — he called them books of the Church rather than of the canon. His view did not prevail in the Latin Church of his day; it was taken up much later in the Reformation.

Controversy and reception

Jerome quarrelled with almost everyone: with Rufinus over Origen, with Augustine over the interpretation of Galatians, with Roman society, with fellow ascetics. His invective is famous and was excessive by the standards of his own time as well as ours. The Church honours the scholar; it has never held up his manner as a model.

  • Augustine of Hippo

    The most influential theologian of the Latin West, honoured as a saint in the Orthodox Church, and read there with a discrimination that the West has not always applied.

    Father or writer

  • How Scripture was formed

    A gradual ecclesial process, not a single decision — and certainly not one taken at Nicaea.

    Theme

  • Jerome on the Hebrew canon

    A Latin scholar who knew Hebrew argues for distinguishing the books of the Hebrew canon from the rest — and the Church did not follow him.

    Canon-of-Scripture witness

Your notes

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Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius, Rufinus: Historical Writings Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men translated edition of primary texts Not archived here; recorded as an outstanding item. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.