Le 30 septembre, l’Église fête saint Jérôme, l’un des plus grands Pères et Docteurs de l’Église. Né au IVᵉ siècle, il consacra sa vie à l’étude de l’Écriture et à la traduction de la Bible en latin, connue sous le nom de Vulgate, qui demeura la référence de l’Occident chrétien pendant plus de mille ans. Ermite, moine, secrétaire du pape Damase, directeur spirituel, polémiste et théologien, Jérôme incarne la passion pour la Parole de Dieu. Sa célèbre phrase reste d’une actualité brûlante : « Ignorer les Écritures, c’est ignorer le Christ. » Dans cette vidéo, découvrez sa vie, son héritage spirituel et une prière à saint Jérôme pour grandir dans l’amour de la Bible.
00:00Today, September 30, the church celebrates Saint Jerome, one of the grandfathers and doctors of the church.
00:10This day also commemorates other lesser-known figures such as Saint Gregory the Illuminator, evangelizer of Armenia.
00:21But it is Jerome who remains at the center of liturgical memory.
00:25Born Vernon 347 in the town of Stridon, on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia, present-day Croatia, Jerome grew up in a well-to-do Christian family.
00:39Very early on, he was sent to Rome for his studies.
00:43There he studied Latin and Greek literature, discovering the richness of classical culture.
00:49But what deeply marked his youth was also a spiritual thirst that no philosophy could satisfy.
01:00Baptized in Rome in his twenties, Jerome decided to devote himself to Christ.
01:06Attracted to the ascetic life, he went to the East, near Antioch, and lived as a hermit in the Syrian desert.
01:14These years of solitude, fasting and prayer gave him a great knowledge of the Scriptures, but also a keen awareness of his human fragility.
01:28It was during these times of inner struggle that he perfected his mastery of Hebrew,
01:33convinced that the Bible had to be read in its original languages to be faithfully understood.
01:38Returning to Rome in 382, Jerome was appointed secretary to Pope Damascus.
01:47The pontiff entrusted him with a crucial mission: to revise the Latin translation of the Bible.
01:55At that time, versions were circulating with many errors, and the word of God was in danger of being altered.
02:01Jerome undertook this titanic work, relying on Hebrew and Greek texts.
02:11This was the birth of the Vulgate, the official Latin translation of the Bible,
02:16which profoundly marked the entire Western Christian tradition,
02:20and remained the reference for more than a millennium.
02:22But Jerome was not only a scholar.
02:26He was also a demanding spiritual director,
02:30especially with groups of Roman women
02:32who desired to live in consecrated celibacy and Bible study.
02:37His correspondence, most of which has come down to us,
02:41demonstrates great intellectual vigor and sometimes polemical fervor,
02:46for Jerome had an ardent temperament, quick to controversy.
02:50His writings against certain heresies of his time are of implacable severity,
02:56but always in the service of the truth.
03:02After the death of Pope Damascus, Jerome left Rome and retired permanently to Bethlehem,
03:07near the Grotto of the Nativity.
03:10There he founded a monastery and a religious community surrounded by disciples.
03:16He spent the last thirty years of his life in study,
03:20prayer and translation.
03:23It is in this atmosphere of recollection and fidelity to Scripture
03:27that he fell asleep in the Lord on September 30, 420.
03:31The legacy of Saint Jerome is immense.
03:38His passionate love for the word of God made him the patron saint of translators,
03:42exegetes and librarians.
03:45His famous maxim remains a pressing invitation to this day,
03:50“To ignore the Scriptures is to ignore Christ.”
03:53Through him, the Church recalls that the Tretian faith cannot be separated from the attentive study of the word.
04:02Jerome invites us to taste Scripture every day as living food,
04:06light for our path and strength for our struggles.
04:08Prayer to Saint Jerome
04:11Lord God, who gave Saint Jerome an ardent love for your word,
04:19grant us through his intercession to read the Holy Scriptures every day with the same inner fire,
04:26to discover the face of Christ and to conform our life to your Gospel.
04:32Through Jesus, your beloved Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Écris le tout premier commentaire