St Jerome Day- Sept 30. (fwd)

[Publib Poster]

Sender: rhadden at isdmnl.wr.usgs.gov
Subject: St Jerome Day- Sept 30.

	This is cross posted to several lists. Apologies, etc.

	September 30 is the feast day of St. Jerome, one of the patron
saints of libraries. Does anyone know of any special foods or
customes associated with this saint? (Another patron of libraries,
St. Lawrence the Librarian, has a feast day on August 10. Although
he was certainly beheaded, the legend that he was roastred on a
grill is so prevelant that it is accepted as fact. Due to this
story, cold cuts are served on his feast day.)

	Here's some info on St. Jerome if you want to know more:

Saint Jerome
     A patron saint of libraries is Saint Jerome (also known as
Hieronymus Eusbius or by the scholastic or literary name of
Sophronius), known mostly for translating the Holy Bible into
Latin. He is considered the patron saint of translators, scholars
and editors, and by association, the patron of libraries and
librarians.
     St. Jerome was born in what is modern day Croatia/Yugoslavia
in 347 AD. He was educated in Rome, and at a very young age argued
with church scholars and disputed current doctrines, especially
those dealing with the divisions between the eastern and western
churches. He withdrew to Bethlehem to begin a new monastery based
on his principles, and also started a convent that stressed the
purity of Christian values.
     He first supported, then argued vigorously with St. Augustine
(who gave the advice to Christians to withdraw from the world and
its cares and who wrote the famous line "Ama Deum et pende laxe" or
"Love God and hang loose") and the north African Christian scholars
on the relevancy of religion, Marianic principles of eternal
virginity, and other, finer points of ecclesiastical law and dogma.
     St. Jerome was most noted for his translations of the Holy
Scriptures from Greek and Aramaic into the Latin Vulgate (everyday
Latin), which made the Bible accessible to many Christians instead
of to only a few scholars and priests. He is also noted for his
many books and writings on theology. 
     However, today he is criticized for being both argumentative
and for not being a very original thinker, but one who quoted often
other people and works to support his beliefs. As such, he may have
more in common as the patron saint of irascible library patrons
rather than librarians. Much of his works is direct translation or
other writers, or translations with some editing, rather than works
of his own thoughts.
     Paintings of St. Jerome often show him at a desk, surrounded
by books, and with the figure of a lion nearby.
     He died in Bethlehem in 420 AD. His feast day is celebrated in
the Roman Catholic Church on September 30, 1994.  

TIA.

	lee hadden
	usgs library
	rhadden at isdmnl.wr.usgs.gov
	(703) 648-6088