The Wisdom of Saints: St Jerome

The Feast of Jerome, Doctor, Presbyter in Rome and Bethlehem, Translator of the Scriptures, 420

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Jerome, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Jerome was born around 345 to wealthy Christian parents who raised him in faith. At the age of 15 he travelled with a friend to Rome where he began his studies in rhetoric and philosophy. His instruction also included study of both Latin and Greek, which later in life he would supplement with the study of Hebrew. While in Rome he struggled with temptations, and would alternate between giving in to youthful passions and periods of a form of penitential asceticism to assuage his guilty conscience, and would also visit the tombs and catacombs of martyrs and saints under Rome. His fear of the darkness of those tombs was a reminder, he would later write, of the Hell that awaited him if he did not repent of his sinful ways.

St Jerome officially converted to Christianity at the age of 19 and was baptised by the Bishop of Rome. He then moved to Treves, modern day Trier, in Gaul where he began his theological studies. In Treves, he began making copies of the writings of St Hilary of Poitiers which he sold to wealthy patrons, and some of which he kept for himself forming the basis of his own theological library. Upon completion of his studies in Treves he returned to Aquileia, a city near the place of his birth in North-Eastern Italy. There he began making friends in the Christian community, and also developed enemies due to his sharp tongue and less than diplomatic nature. Eventually he chose to leave, heading east for Antioch where he arrived in 373. He studied under some of the local Christian leaders and ultimately began leading an ascetic lifestyle in the desert and where he began his study of Hebrew in order to better understand the Old Testament. Shortly before leaving Antioch, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Paulinus, the Nicaean Bishop of Antioch, in recognition of his academic studies, but only on the condition that he would not be required to fulfil priestly duties.

Around 380 St Jerome travelled to Constantinople where he studied under St Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, before being asked by Bishop Paulinus to accompany him to Rome in 382 for a Council to resolve controversies over a schism in Antioch between Arian and Nicene Christians. The Council was held under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome, St Damasus I who ultimately was greatly impressed by Jerome’s arguments and convinced him to stay in Rome and serve as his secretary. St Jerome served the Bishop until Damasus’s death in 384 after which St Jerome was forced to leave Rome due various false charges and scandals being raised against him by the many enemies he had made over his years there. He eventually settled in Jerusalem where he spent the last thirty years of his life working on a Latin translation of the Bible, which had originally been commissioned by St Damasus in 382. It was not completed in St Jerome’s lifetime, but his work ultimately became the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church, the Latin Vulgate Bible, for centuries after.

St Jerome is well-known for his writings, with many of his letters, treatises and other works suriving to this day. While his contribution of the Latin Vulgate Bible is probably his most well-recognized contribution, he was considered an extremely learned and articulate writer in his time and many of his other thoughts were considered extremely persuasive.

It was in 383 that St Jerome published his treatise on the Virginity of the Blessed Mary, in response to claims made by Helvidius. Helvidius contended, supported by the writings of Tertullian and St Victorinus of Pettau that references to brethren of Christ in the Scriptures confirmed that Mary had issue subsequent to Christ. Jerome responded with three propositions which today are maintained as Catholic doctrines on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Over the hundred years that followed the publication of the treatise, the views articulated by St Jerome would become the foundation of the views of the Church Fathers on Mary which would survive until modern times. To this day, the Anglican tradition holds that, “ancient Christian authority,” affirms Mary’s perpetual virginity.

St Jerome’s treatise provided three arguments. First that Helvidius had gravely misinterpreted the Gospel of St Matthew 1. 18-25 which describes St Mary and St Joseph. Second, that the use of the term “brethren” of the Lord doesn’t imply biological siblings born of St Mary, but rather that they were Christ’s cousins. Third, St Jerome concluded that virginity is greater than a married state.

On his first claim, in response to verse 25, which reads, “But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” St Jerome argued that Scripture showed that the word until did not have a fixed meaning as Helvidius replied, citing a number of verses:

Paul the Apostle writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15. 23) says, “Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s, at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” Granted that the passage relates to our Lord’s human nature, we do not deny that the words are spoken of Him who endured the cross and is commanded to sit afterwards on the right hand. What does he mean then by saying, “for he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet”? Is the Lord to reign only until His enemies begin to be under His feet, and once they are under His feet will He cease to reign? Of course His reign will then commence in its fulness when His enemies begin to be under His feet.

The second counter-argument hinges on St Jerome’s contention that Helvidius misunderstood St Luke’s gospel as well where in Lk 2. 6-7 it says, “While they were [in Bethlehem], the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.” A similar counter-argument is presented that simply because Christ is called Mary’s firstborn does not require that there be subsequent issue. In St Jerome’s words:

Our position is this: Every only begotten son is a first-born son, but not every first-born is an only begotten. By first-born we understand not only one who is succeeded by others, but one who has had no predecessor. “Everything,” says the Lord to Aaron (Nm 18. 15), “that openeth the womb of all flesh which they offer unto the Lord, both of man and beast, shall be thine: nevertheless the first born of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.” (The word of God defines first-born as everything that openeth the womb. Otherwise, if the title belongs to such only as have younger brothers, the priests cannot claim the firstlings until their successors have been begotten, lest, perchance, in case there were no subsequent delivery it should prove to be the first-born but not merely the only begotten.

Similar Scriptural arguments are presented to show that the term brethren and brothers are used to refer to cousins and other relations, and therefore a reference to James as the brother of the Lord does not necessarily mean he was the son of St Mary and St Joseph.

St Jerome concluded by noting a life of single celibacy, in contrast to Helvidius’s arguments, could more easily be viewed as fruitful to Christian life as married life brings with it many distractions from God, from the concerns of maintaining a household to the raising of children. “Tell me, pray,” asks St Jerome, “where amid all this is there room for the thought of God?”

St Jerome’s blunt words to Helvidius articulated a doctrine on Mary which has been held by the Church for centuries since, and strongly reminds all Christians of the importance of the primacy of Scripture: “We believe that God was born of the Virgin, because we read it. That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe, because we do not read it.”

The Wisdom of Saints: St Bernard of Clairvaux

The Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, France, Doctor and Poet, 1153

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Bernard, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Bernard of Clairvaux was a 12th century French abbot. Born to a noble family in 1090, he received an excellent quality education during which he developed a love of reading Holy Scripture. Still at a young age, he became concerned with avoiding the snares and temptations of worldly life, and felt drawn to an ascetic and monastic lifestyle that would help him avoid that. Upon the death of his mother, he joined a relatively newly formed monastic order. It followed a reformed version of the Benedictine rules, and the Order became known as the Cistercians due to their founding at Cîteaux Abbey. In his early years at Cîteaux he impressed his monastic superiors with his devotion and spiritual growth, and was soon sent, with a dozen other monks, to Clairvaux Abbey where he was soon appointed Abbot.

In his career as Abbot of Clairvaux, he founded a number of other Cistercian monasteries and wrote a number of works which survive to this day. While he is perhaps today most famous for his writings, in the 12th century he was a well-known figure throughout the Church and in particular in France where he resided and was involved in defending the Church against the state and becoming involved in some of the political struggles of the Church, as well becoming a standard bearer for the Second Crusade throughout France and Germany at the request of Pope Eugene III, a fellow Cistercian. The failure of the Second Crusade led to a decline in Bernard’s reputation, and he died soon after in 1153. His reputation recovered after his death, however, and he was canonized in 1174 and made a Doctor of the Church, recognized as a Teacher of the Faith in the Anglican tradition, in 1830.

One of his key works was De diligendo Dei (On Loving God) which discussed the nature of love, God’s love for man, the debt of love owed to God and why we ought to love Him, and is perhaps best remembered for his introduction of the concept of the four degrees of love, which describes the pilgrimage which all Christians proceed through in their growing love for God.

In the first degree of love, man loves oneself for self’s sake. St Bernard summarizes this love thusly:

because love is natural, it is only right to love the Author of nature first of all. Hence comes the first and great commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' But nature is so frail and weak that necessity compels her to love herself first; and this is carnal love, wherewith man loves himself first and selfishly, as it is written, 'That was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual,' (I Cor. 15. 46).

In this natural order, man does not truly know God, and therefore is stuck at the base level of loving himself before being able progress towards loving the Author of love, as St Bernard puts it. St Bernard goes even further, suggesting that this stage is not only natural but almost required. He argues that when in times of trouble we call upon the Lord for strength, we ultimately come to glorify him for answering our call. “loving only himself, begins to love God by reason of that very self-love; since he learns that in God he can accomplish all things that are good, and that without God he can do nothing.”

As is alluded to, this leads to the second degree of love, love of God for self’s sake. Even the hardest heart, contends St Bernard, would become “softened by the goodness of such a Savior, so that he would love God not altogether selfishly, but because He is God?” Put otherwise, the distinction between the first and second degrees of love is always for self’s sake, but during the first degree one has not yet begun to shift love of self to love of God for what he has done.

It is the third degree of love in which love becomes love of God for God’s sake, rather than our own. As St Bernard puts it, “Whosoever praises God for His essential goodness, and not merely because of the benefits He has bestowed, does really love God for God's sake, and not selfishly.” More simply, the third degree of love comes when we love God for who He is and not merely because of what He has done for us.

The fourth, and final, degree of love is loving oneself for God’s sake. This is a simple and contemporary translation of St Bernard’s four degrees, but interestingly a more direct translation taken straight from the chapter title would read, “the fourth degree of love: wherein man does not even love self save for God's sake.” This degree of love is perhaps the most difficult to understand when just viewing the summary, but St Bernard’s meaning is clear in his own explanation:

In Him should all our affections centre, so that in all things we should seek only to do His will, not to please ourselves. And real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God's will for us: even as we pray every day: 'Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven' (Mt. 6. 10)

The fourth degree of love comes when we truly turn our lives to God such that we love Him unconditionally and, “trampling down,” as St John Chrysostom’s Divine Liturgy says, “all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living, thinking and doing such things as are well pleasing to [God].” The love of oneself comes not for any remotely selfish purpose, but rather it is a reflection of God’s unconditional love for us which is reflected through our imperfect attempt at unconditional love for Him.

Through his four degrees of love, St Bernard of Clairvaux displays both his insights into the nature of love and human nature itself. He provides us with a standard and roadmap by which we can judge our own degree of love for God and guide ourselves to a deeper love of Him.