In a message dated 01/16/2000 5:50:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I think other famous imperfect saints
> could include the irascible Jerome!
> Bro Thomas
Dante certainly would have agreed with you. He has Beatrice scolding Jerome,
complaining that when he read the Bible he inserted ideas of his own that he
subsequently passed off as Holy Writ. The passage is almost comical in an
affectionate way. If even Jerome, who translated the Vulgate, and was so
admired for his learning, cannot meet the standards of Dante's high-minded
Beatrice, there indeed seems little hope for lesser mortals.
I think the passage at issue had something to do with whether angels were
created at the Creation. The annotators refer the reader to Gen. 1.1, which I
also thought was amusing. If Dante (or Beatrice) means that Jerome was
imperfect in his understanding of the very first verse of the Bible, he
indeed may have been off to an inauspicious start. I'm told Jerome actually
did have some aberrant or theologically questionable ideas about either
angels or the Creation, but I don't know what they were.
My favorite painting of Jerome is by Caravaggio, and turns on the issue of
human frailty, although of a physical rather than moral or intellectual
nature. Jerome is shown as a very old man, writing on the Vulgate. His bare
arms are frail and skinny. He's growing bald. As he writes, his face is close
to the page, as if his eyes weren't as good as they once were. He looks as if
he won't live much longer, and the painting is almost painful to look at
because it reminds one of one's own mortality. Some people might rather see
Jerome portrayed in a more heroic mold. But I like the implied contrast
between the enduring quality of Jerome's work (the Vulgate) and the frailty
of Jerome himself. It seems more true to the idea that even the greatest or
most gifted of human beings are human beings like the rest of us. That's what
makes their accomplishments so amazing.
But please tell us about Jerome being "irascible." Most of what I know about
him comes from The Golden Legend, which is very admiring and just speaks of
his great learning.
pat sloane
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