What is the Latin Vulgate and what was Saint Jerome's contribution?
In the late 4th century, Pope Damasus I commissioned Saint Jerome to translate the Sacred Scriptures from their original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into the common Latin language of the people ('versio vulgata'). Jerome spent decades in Bethlehem producing this monumental work, known as the Latin Vulgate. For over a millennium, the Vulgate served as the standard liturgical and theological biblical text of the Western Church, celebrated for its fidelity. Jerome famously declared: 'Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.'
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 133
- Hebrews 4:12
Awaiting review by the chaplaincy. Written in our own words; the Church's own texts are the authority.