Solemnity of St Joseph

"Why was the Lord conceived of a virgin already espoused, rather than of one as yet unpledged to a man?  For one thing, because from the genealogy of Joseph, the lineage of Mary as a descéndant of David, and thus of her Child, could be the more easily established.  For another, because by this betrothal Mary would be saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress.  Again, because thereby Mary was given a guardian during the flight into Egypt.  To these reasons the Martyr Ignatius addeth another, namely; that the virgin birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.


Before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost.  That is, she was found so to be by Joseph, not by any one else, for he already had almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her.  But when it is said: Before they came together: it doth not follow that they ever did come together carnally.  The Scripture is to be understood merely in the sense that up to this time they had not done so."

-- From a homily by St Jerome

Feast of St John, Apostle and Evangelist

"The Apostle John, whom Jesus loved, was a son of Zebedee, and the brother of that James the Apostle who was beheaded by Herod soon after our Lord suffered. He was the last of the Evangelists to write his Gospel, which he published at the request of the Bishops of Asia against Cerinthus and other hereticks, and particularly against the then spreading doctrine of the Ebionites, who asserted that Christ had had no existence before Mary. It was therefore needful for the Evangelist to declare his eternal and divine generation.



In the fourteenth year of Domitian, whilst this same was stirring up the second persecution after that of Nero, John was exiled to the Island of Patmos where he wrote his Apocalypse, whereon commentaries have been composed by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. When Domitian was killed, the Senate annulled all his acts on account of their excessive severity, and the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign of Nerva. There he remained until the time of Trajan, and founded and governed all the churches of Asia. There also in an extreme old age, he died, in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's passion, and was buried near the same city of Ephesus."


-- Book on Ecclesiastical writers by St Jerome

Memorial of St Stephen, Protomartyr

We have already remarked that the words: Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers: may have reference to the Lord as the one whom the Jews were afterward to put to death. In a secondary sense it may likewise be applied to his disciples, of whom he speaketh when he saith: Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Here observe that, as the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians, there are diversities of gifts amongst Christ's followers. Some are prophets of that which is to come; some are wise men who know the due season for rebuke, and exhortation; some are scribes learned in the Law. And of these Stephen was stoned, Paul was slain with the sword, Peter was crucified, and the disciples of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles were scourged.

It is a subject of dispute amongst commentators as to what is meant by Zacharias the son of Barachias, for we read of several persons of this name. But in this passage, as if to prevent any mistake, is added: Whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. I have read various opinions in various places upon this question, and I will give you each. First, some hold that this Zacharias was the eleventh of the twelve Minor Prophets, which same is called the son of Barachias. But the Bible nowhere telleth us that this Prophet was slain between the temple and the altar; and it is hardly possible in his day that even the ruins of the temple were in existence. Secondly, others maintain that this Zacharias was the father of John the Baptist. Such an interpretation is derived from certain vain imaginations of the apocryphal Gospels, wherein it is asserted that he was martyred for preaching the Saviour's coming.

A third school will have it that this Zacharias, the son of Barachias, was that Zacharias of whom we read in the second Book of Chronicles, that he was slain by Joash, King of Judah, in the court of the house of the Lord, which same might be understood as between the temple and the altar. However, that Zacharias was not the son of Barachias, but of Jehoiada the priest, whence it is written: Joash the King remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. The question therefore ariseth, if this opinion be true, why the manner of death agreeth with this explanation but the name doth not, since Zacharias is called the son of Jehoiada rather than of Barachias. The Hebrew word Barachias signifieth Blessed-of-the-Lord, and this might be an honourific title for Jehoiada, used to imply his righteousness, inasmuch as our Lord was making reference to the shedding of righteous blood. Further, we might find that in the Gospel used by the Nazarenes the name of Jehoiada is used instead of Barachias."

-- From a homily by St Jerome

Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord

"Why was the Lord conceived of a virgin espoused rather than of one who was not? First, that Mary's genealogy might be reckoned from that of Joseph. Secondly, lest she be stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Thirdly, that she might have a guardian on their flight into Egypt. To these, the Martyr Ignatius hath added a fourth reason; namely, that the birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would thus suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. That is, she was found by Joseph, not by anyone else, for already he had almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her. But from the words, Before they came together, it doth not follow that they ever did come together. The Scripture is concerned only to shew that up to this time they had not so done.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. If any man be joined to an harlot, he becometh one body with her; and according to the law, they that be privy to a crime are held to be guilty. How then can it be that Joseph is described as a just man, at the very time he was compounding the criminality of his espoused? These words be none other than a testimony to the virginity of Mary; for Joseph knew her to be chaste; wherefore he marvelled at all that had come to pass, and hid in silence that of which he knew not the mystery."
 
-- From a homily by St Jerome

Memorial of St Jerome

"Jerome was the son of one Eusebius, and was born at Sdrigni in Dalmatia, in the reign of the Emperor Constantius.  He was baptized at Rome when a young boy, and studied there, under the instruction of Donatus and other very learned personages.  He travelled in Gaul for the sake of improving his mind, and there sought the friendship of divers godly men learned in the Scriptures, and made with his own hand many copies of the holy books.  He afterwards betook himself to Greece, where he attained eminence as a philosopher and orator, in the following of the most famous theologians.  At Constantinople, in especial, he sat at the feet of Gregory of Nazianzus, from whom he professeth himself to have learnt his theology.  Then, for godliness' sake, he went to see the home of the Lord Christ, and so throughout all Palestine.  He witnesseth that this pilgrimage, where he got the help of the most learned of the Jews for the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, did him much good.

He withdrew himself into the wild deserts of Syria, where he passed four years in studying the Holy Scriptures and in considering the blessedness of heaven, afflicting his body by alway denying himself, by bitter tears, and by chastisement of the flesh.  He was ordained Priest by Paulinus, Patriarch of Antioch.  He went to Rome on account of the quarrelling of certain Bishops with Paulinus and Epiphanius, and there helped Pope Damasus in the writing of his letters upon Church affairs.  But the longing for his old solitude came upon him, and he went back to Palestine, where, in the monastery at Bethlehem, built beside the cradle of the Lord Christ by the Lady Paula of Rome, he set himself to enter on earth upon the life of heaven, serving God in reading and writing without ceasing, regardless of the sufferings of a body tormented by divers diseases and pains.

Hard questions upon the interpretation of the Holy Scripture were sent to him from all parts of the earth, as to an oracle.  He was oftentimes consulted by Pope Damasus and by the holy Augustine upon the meaning of the most obscure passages of the Scripture, because of his extraordinary learning, and that he knew not the Latin and Greek tongues only, but also the Hebrew and Chaldee, and, as the same Augustine testifieth, had read nearly all writers.  He attacked heretics with keen publications, and ever undertook the defence of the godly and Catholic.  He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin, and, at the command of Damasus, reformed, according to the original Greek, the existing version of the New.  Upon great part of the Scriptures he wrote commentaries.  He translated likewise into Latin the works of many learned men, and himself contributed to the Christian life many monuments of his own wit.  He lived to an extreme old age, and passed away to heaven, famous for learning and holiness, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius.  His body was buried at Bethlehem, but hath since been brought to Rome, where it lieth in the Church of St. Mary-at-the-Manger."

-- From the 1911 Breviary of St Pius X (1950 ed)

** Painting by Anthony van Dyck

Memorial of St Jerome

"St Jerome, son of Eusebius, was born at Stridonium in Dalmatian in 329, during the reign of Emperor Constantine. He was baptized at an early age in Rome, in which city he was instructed in the liberal arts by Donatus and other learned men. Without a proper guide he neglected to lead a virtuous life, as he later confessed and bitterly lamented.

Desirous of further knowledge, Jerome decided to travel. In his first journeys he was led by the mercy of God into the paths of virtue and salvation. He first visited Gaul, where he met some learned, pious men, and he copied many sacred books with his own hand. He arrived at Trier shortly before the year 370, and it was in this city that the sentiments of piety which he had imbibed in his early youth were awakened, and his heart was entirely converted to God. He then proceeded to Greece, where he studied oratory and philosophy, and made friends with some of the greatest theologians. He studied under St Gregory of Nazianzen at Constantinople, by whom he was taught sacred learning, and then he returned to Rome to answer God's call. After making a vow of celibacy, he went to Antioch; then fled to the wild Syrian desert, where he spent four years reading the Scriptures, contemplating heavenly beatitude, and constantly afflicting his body by abstinence, weeping, and every kind of penance. His health impaired, he left the desert and went to Antioch, where he received Holy Orders from the hands of Paulinus, Patriarch of that city, before the end of 377. He then returned to Rome to settle the disputes that had arisen between certain Bishops, and Pope Damasus engaged him to assist in writing his ecclesiastical letters. After the Pontiff's death, envy and calumny were hurled against St Jerome. His reputation was attached most outrageously. After staying several years in Rome, St Jerome, yearning for solitude, returned to the East in 385. He visited St Epiphanus at Cyprus, and then stopped in Antioch on his way to Palestine. The following spring he went to Egypt to improve himself in sacred learning and in the perfect observances of the monastic life, after which he returned to Palestine.

According to St Augustine, St Jerome had a remarkable knowledge not only of Latin and Greek, but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic, and had read almost every author. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and, at the command of Pope Damasus, the New Testament from the Greek. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men, and enriched Christian learning from his own pen.

The Pelagians the year following the Council of Diospolis, in 416, sent bandits to Bethlehem to assault the holy Monks and Nuns who lived under the direction of St Jerome. The Saint escaped with great difficulty. He became the target of hatred of all the enemies of the Church. Having reached the age of ninety-one, and being renowned for learning and holiness, St Jerome passed to his heavenly reward on September 30, 420, during the reign of Emperor Honorius. His body was buried at Bethlehem, but was later translated to the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome."

-- Heavenly Friends: a saint for each day by Rosalie Marie Levy