born 0441; 347, Stridon, Dalmatia
died 419/420, Bethlehem, Palestine
Church Father and biblical translator.
Born into a wealthy Christian family in Dalmatia, he was educated there and in Rome. Baptized 0441; 366, he spent most of the next 20 years in travel. He lived two years as a hermit in the desert of Chalcis. From 377 to 379 Jerome was in Antioch, where he studied biblical texts and translated the works of Origen and Eusebius . He lived in Rome (38285), but theological controversy and opposition to his ascetic views led him to depart for the Holy Land, and he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived until his death. Traditionally regarded as the most learned of the Latin Fathers, he wrote numerous biblical commentaries and theological tracts on Pelagianism and other heresies. In 406 he completed his translation of the Bible into Latin, including his own translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew; Jerome's Latin Bible is known as the Vulgate.