St. Jerome was born about the year 340 at Stridon in Dalmatia (modern Yugoslavia). His parents sent him to Rome for his education where he was baptized in about his twentieth year by Pope Liberius. A period spent at Trier brought him into contact with the monastic life; he encountered it again at Aquileia, and then himself went to live as a hermit in a Syrian desert where he gave himself up to severe mortifications and meditation on the Scriptures. He was ordained priest at Antioch. When he returned to Rome in 380 to be employed as secretary to Pope Damasus he was also occupied in the spiritual direction of certain chosen souls of high virtue. He spent the last part of his life in Palestine where he founded two monasteries at Bethlehem with the help of two great Roman ladies. He was much occupied in literary work. St. Jerome translated the Bible and was largely responsible for fixing the Latin text known as the Vulgate, adopted by the Church as her official version. His great learning, his commentaries on Holy Scripture and his zeal against all the heresies of his time have earned him the title of Doctor of the Church. He died at the age of eighty in 419. His body is buried at St. Mary Major’s in Rome.