By Paul Monceaux

Saint Jerome was a born writer, individual, fresh, sparkling with verve and (at times) vitriol; a great scholar, accomplished in languages, exegesis, and hist­ory; and, above all, an ingenious translator, whose Vulgate is the Church’s official Latin Bible. Despite the longstanding fame of his literary and spiritual legacies, however, the saint’s historical life has not always received equal care. In this equally instructive and entertaining study, Paul Monceaux balances the biographical account of Saint Jerome’s youthful years, presenting his first thirty years of life and covering his education and early scholarly success; Rome; his youthful indiscretions and escapades; ; his conversion and baptism; his travels and initial forays into the ascetical life; and his hermetic life in the Syrian desert, short-lived but still steeped in suffering and spiritually transformative.

Translated by F. J. Sheed and first published in 1933, Saint Jerome: The Early Years is a historically detailed and vividly rendered portrait of that lion of Christianity in his spirited youth—and one certain to spark further interest into the man who set his tremendous talents at the feet of the Divine Judge. 

Jerome was not to be an original thinker, nor a philosopher, nor a theologian; but a scholar, a controversialist, a man of letters. Grace did the rest. (Paul Monceaux)

I fear not the judgment of men; I shall have God for judge. (St. Jerome)

Paul Monceaux (1859–1941) was a French author and scholar of history and lin­guistics, with a specialty in the Latin Christianity of Africa. 

F. J. Sheed (1897–1981) was one of the most important Christian intellectuals of the twentieth century and founder—with his wife, Maisie Ward—of Sheed & Ward.

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Paperback: 194pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953492