33. Letters of St. Jerome, Vol. 1 (Ancient Christian Writers)

288 Pages·1962·9.136 MB·English

by  Charles Christopher Mierow

THE LETTERS OF ST. JEROME
A C
n cien t hristian
W
riters
THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS IN TRANSLATION
EDITED BY
JOHANNES QUASTEN WALTER J. BURGHARDT, S.J.
Catholic University of America Woodstock College
Washington, D.C. Woodstock, Md.
No. 33
WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND
THE NEWMAN PRESS
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
1963
THE LETTERS OF
It
H' ieyoy* • u£ t Sa
TRANSLATED
BY
CHARLES CHRISTOPHER MIEROW, Ph.D.
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
THOMAS COMERFORD LAWLER
Volume I
Letters 1-22
WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND
THE NEWMAN PRESS
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
1963
THE NEWMAN PRESS
WESTMINSTER, MD., U.S.A.
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First published in U.S.A. 1963
First published in Great Britain 1963
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 63-22028
De Licentia Superioris S.J.
Nihil obstat: J. Quasten, cens. dep.
Imprimatur: Patricius A. O’Boyle, D.D., Aichiep. Washingtonen.
d. 21 Aprilis 1963
© Copyright 1963 by Rev. Johannes Quasten
and Rev. W alter J. Burghardt, S.J.
MADE AND PRINTED IN USA
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 3
TEXT
Letter 1: To the Priest Innocent Concerning the
Woman Seven Times Struck by the Sword 21
Letter 2: To Theodosius and the Other Anchorites
Living in Residence with Him . . . . 28
Letter 3: To Rufinus...........................................................30
Letter 4: To Florentinus on the Origin of Friendship 35
Letter 5: To Florentinus.....................................................37
Letter 6: To the Deacon Julian of Aquileia . . . . 39
Letter 7: To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius . . 41
Letter 8: To Niceas, Subdeacon of Aquileia . . . . 46
Letter 9: To Chrysocomas, Monk of Aquileia . . . 48
Letter 10: To Paul, an Old Man of Concordia . . . 50
Letter 11: To the Virgins of Haemona................................53
Letter 12: To Antonius, Monk of Haemona . . . . 55
Letter 13: To Castorina, My Mother’s Sister . . . . 57
Letter 14: To Heliodorus the Monk......................................59
Letter 15: To Damasus...........................................................70
Letter 16: To Damasus...........................................................74
Letter 17: To Mark, a Priest atChalcis.................................76
Letter 18A: To D am asus......................................................79
Letter 18B: To D am asus......................................................97
Letter 19: A Letter of Damasus to Jerome..........................103
Letter 20: To Damasus..........................................................104
^.Letter 21: To Damasus..........................................................109
V Letter 22: To Eustochium....................................................134
N O T E S .........................................................................................181
INDEXES
1. Old and New Testament...............................................251
2. Authors....................................................................................258
3. General In d e x ....................................................................261
THE LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

INTRODUCTION
The letters of St. Jerome comprise one of the most impor­
tant collections of epistles in all Latin literature. It is a large
collection—over 150 items, some 120 hy the Saint himself
and the remainder including a number by other notables of
the day. Indispensable to the biographer and to the student
of Jerome’s work, this body of correspondence is also a signifi­
cant source of information on the world of Jerome and the
people in it, on the general social and ecclesiastical life of his
time. Jerome’s letters are, moreover, stylistically the best of
his works.
It is, of course, for his work on Scripture, and especially for
his production of the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, that
Jerome is best known; but it is from his letters that he himself
is known best. No other source gives such an intimate pic­
ture of this Saint, one of the four great doctors of the West­
ern Church and generally regarded as the most learned of
the Latin Fathers. Here we can. see the tireless scholar, the
gifted translator and exegete; here we have the great ascetic
and promoter of the. ascetic life-,, aljbeit himself impatient at
times and irascible, strong-minded and intransigent, given to
exaggeration and free with vituperation; here an uncompro­
mising and outspoken critic of contemporary morals, firm and
insistent in his spiritual direction, yet also a man of kindli­
ness and sympathy; here an adviser to the Chair of Peter,
strong champion of the primacy of the papacy, staunchly
orthodox, frequently in controversy, a powerful and devas­
tating polemicist. Here also are precious details of his life
not otherwise known. Jerome was one of the leading figures
of his day, widely acquainted as well as widely known, and
a man of considerable travel before bis settlement for good at
the monastery in Bethlehem. Deeply versed in both sacred
and profane literature, he was himself a fluent writer, a
superb Latin stylist, and he has preserved for us vivid descrip­
tions of personalities and events of his day, of, for example,
monastic life, doctrinal dispute, social custom. The corre­
spondence which has survived is a veritable treasure-trove for
the hagiographer, but also for the theologian, the scriptural
scholar, the historian of the period.
Not all of the letters are of equal interest or importance.
Some are only brief notes, running but a few lines; others
amount to pamphlet-length tracts. This one will be little
more than a few complaining words from Jerome taking a
correspondent to task for not writing; that one will be an
exegetical treatise; another will be a long exhortation to the
ascetic life; another still will amount to a funeral oration on
a departed soul; this one will be an essay on virginity; that
one will impart advice on the rearing of children. Jeromes
addressees will range from contemporary luminaries such as
the Pope in Rome and the illustrious Augustine of Hippo all
the way down to persons unknown to history except for the
fact that Jerome wrote to them.
How extensive St. Jerome’s total correspondence may have
been, we can only guess. But we must make our estimate a
high one, judging from what has survived and bearing in
mind the extraordinary reputation he had, the number of
persons who sought his advice and knowledge, the contro­
versies in which he was involved, the caustic criticism he
attracted as well as ardent admiration. We know that he was
an indefatigable writer, and he himself asserts at one point
that he does not know how many letters there had been to
Paula and Eustochium “because they are written every day.”1