QUOTATION: Being Hated

Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Heretics

Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation. Between heresy and schism there is this difference: that heresy involves perverse doctrine, while schism separates one from the Church on account of disagreement with the bishop. Nevertheless, there is no schism which does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church.

--St. Jerome, Commentary on Titus 3:10–11, c. 386

QUOTATION: Pious Books

Endeavor to have always in your hand a pious book, that with this shield you may defend yourself against bad thoughts.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: The Multiplication of the Loaves

If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to heaven without the Bread of Heaven.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Riches

He who guards his riches like a slave is their victim; but he who throws off their yoke possesses them as their lord and master.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Mortification

When the devil cannot turn a soul away from virtue, he tries to urge it to excessive mortification.

--St Jerome

QUOTATION: Guardian Angel

So valuable to heaven is the dignity of the human soul that every member of the human race has a guardian angel from the moment the person begins to be.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Mary's Suffering

Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no-one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: A Sinner's Odds

Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Communion with the Pope

To follow Christ is to be in communion with the Pope, and therein lies the only security.

- St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Modesty

Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak. Why do we profess one thing and display another? The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals impurity.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: The Apostle John

We may wonder how both the sons of Zebedee, James and John, came to drink from the chalice of martyrdom, since Scripture tells us only that the apostle James was decapitated by Herod. John, on the other hand, died a natural death. But in the history of the Church we are told that he was to be martyred in a vat of boiling oil; an athlete of Christ, he was saved from the oil and banished to the island of Patmos. John too suffered martyrdom; he, like the three young men who stood in the burning fire, drank from the chalice of martyrdom, though his persecutor failed to spill his blood.

--St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 20, 23.

QUOTATION: Hypocrisy

It is no fault of Christianity that a hypocrite falls into sin.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Sainthood

What saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it?

--St. Jerome, Letters, 22:39.

QUOTATION: Knowledge of Scripture

A man who is well grounded in the testimonies of the Scripture is the bulwark of the Church.

--St. Jerome: In Isaiam, 54:12