(Updated July 15, 2025)
This Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Church Father, St. Jerome.
Next to each quote are the topic-based Quote Archives in which they are included.
This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues.
Books
St. Jerome, Illustrious Men (392)
(Ch. 1, 15)
(Ch. 1) Simon Peter the son of John, from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, brother of Andrew the apostle, and himself chief of the apostles, after having been bishop of the church of Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion—the believers in circumcision, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia—pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow [the heretic] Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero. At his hands he received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. He wrote two epistles which are called Catholic, the second of which, on account of its difference from the first in style, is considered by many not to be by him. Then too the Gospel according to Mark, who was his disciple and interpreter, is ascribed to him. On the other hand, the books, of which one is entitled his Acts, another his Gospel, a third his Preaching, a fourth his Revelation, a fifth his “Judgment” are rejected as apocryphal.
Buried at Rome in the Vatican near the triumphal way he is venerated by the whole world…
(Ch. 15) [St. Pope] Clement, of whom the apostle Paul writing to the Philippians says “With Clement and others of my fellow-workers whose names are written in the book of life” (Phil. 4:3), the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle. He wrote, on the part of the church of Rome, an especially valuable Letter to the church of the Corinthians, which in some places is publicly read, and which seems to me to agree in style with the epistle to the Hebrews which passes under the name of Paul but it differs from this same epistle, not only in many of its ideas, but also in respect of the order of words, and its likeness in either respect is not very great. There is also a second Epistle under his name which is rejected by earlier writers, and a Disputation between Peter and Appion written out at length, which Eusebius in the third book of his Church history rejects. He died in the third year of Trajan and a church built at Rome preserves the memory of his name unto this day.
Treatises
St. Jerome, Against the Luciferians (383)
Cyprian of blessed memory tried to avoid broken cisterns and not to drink of strange waters: and therefore, rejecting heretical baptism, he summoned his African synod in opposition to [St. Pope] Stephen, who was the blessed Peter’s twenty-second successor in the see of Rome. They met to discuss this matter; but the attempt failed. At last those very bishops who had together with him determined that heretics must be re-baptized, reverted to the old custom and published a fresh decree.
St. Jerome, Against Jovinian (393)
- Mortal Sin: Christians Can Lose Their Salvation | Book 2, §30
- The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | Book 1, §26
- The Sacrament of Marriage, Divorce, and Contraception | Book 1, §20
(§20) But I wonder why he set Judah and Tamar before us for an example [Gen. 38], unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan who was slain because he grudged his brother seed [Gen. 38:9]. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?…
(§26) …But you say, the Church was founded upon Peter [Matt. 16:18]: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism…
Some offenses are light, some heavy. It is one thing to owe ten thousand talents, another to owe a farthing. We shall have to give account of the idle word no less than of adultery; but it is not the same thing to be put to the blush, and to be put upon the rack, to grow red in the face and to ensure lasting torment. Do you think I am merely expressing my own views? Hear what the Apostle John says: “He who knows that his brother sins a sin not unto death, let him ask, and he shall give him life, even to him that sins not unto death. But he that has sinned unto death, who shall pray for him?” (1 John 5:16). You observe that if we entreat for smaller offenses, we obtain pardon: if for greater ones, it is difficult to obtain our request: and that there is a great difference between sins…
St. Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus (401)
What sin have I committed in following the judgment of the churches? But when I repeat what the Jews say against the Story of Susanna [Dan. 13, not in protestant canon] and the Hymn of the Three Children [Dan. 3:29-68, not in protestant canon], and the fables of Bel and the Dragon [Dan. 14, not in protestant canon], which are not contained in the Hebrew Bible, the man who makes this a charge against me proves himself to be a fool and a slanderer; for I explained not what I thought but what they commonly say against us. I did not reply to their opinion in the Preface, because I was studying brevity, and feared that I should seem to be writing not a Preface but a book. I said therefore, “As to which this is not the time to enter into discussion.”
St. Jerome, Against Vigilantius (406)
- The Communion of Saints: Intercession and Relics | §§6, 8
- The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | §§1, 8
(§1) …Jovinianus, condemned by the authority of the Church of Rome, amidst pheasants and swine’s flesh, breathed out, or rather belched out his spirit…
(§6) …You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they cry for the avenging of their blood [Apoc. 6:10], have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns, overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, oft wins pardon from God for six hundred thousand armed men [Ex. 32:30, et al]; and Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr, entreats pardon for his persecutors [Acts 7:59-60]; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ, shall they have less power than before?…
(§8) Does the bishop of Rome do wrong when he offers sacrifices to the Lord over the venerable bones of the dead men Peter and Paul, as we should say, but according to you, over a worthless bit of dust, and judges their tombs worthy to be Christ’s altars? And not only is the bishop of one city in error, but the bishops of the whole world, who, despite the tavern-keeper Vigilantius, enter the basilicas of the dead, in which “a worthless bit of dust and ashes lies wrapped up in a cloth,” defiled and defiling all else. Thus, according to you, the sacred buildings are like the sepulchers of the Pharisees, whitened without, while within they have filthy remains, and are full of foul smells and uncleanliness. And then he dares to expectorate his filth upon the subject and to say: “Is it the case that the souls of the martyrs love their ashes, and hover round them, and are always present, lest haply if any one come to pray and they were absent, they could not hear?” Oh, monster, who ought to be banished to the ends of the earth! do you laugh at the relics of the martyrs, and in company with Eunomius, the father of this heresy, slander the Churches of Christ? Are you not afraid of being in such company, and of speaking against us the same things which he utters against the Church?…
Biblical Commentaries
St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew (398)
- The Sacrament of Marriage, Divorce, and Contraception | Commentary on 19:9
(Commentary on 19:9)1
Therefore, whenever there is fornication and suspicion of fornication, a wife is freely divorced. And since it could have happened that someone brought a false charge against an innocent person, and on account of the second marriage-union hurled a charge at the first wife, it is commanded to divorce the first wife in such a way that he has no second wife while the first one is living. For he says the following: If you divorce your wife not on account of lust, but on account of an injury, why after the experience of the first unhappy marriage do you admit yourself into the danger of a new one? And besides, it could have come to pass that according to the same law, the wife too would have given a bill of divorce to the husband. And so by the same precaution, it is commanded that she not receive a second husband. And since a prostitute and she who had once been an adulteress were not afraid of reproach, the second husband 216 | 217 is commanded that if he marries such a woman, he will be under the charge of adultery.
Letters
St. Jerome, Letter 14: To Heliodorus, Monk (c. 376)
Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ [the Eucharist], and who make us Christians [in baptism]. Having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ. But, as I have before hinted, the case of monks is different from that of the clergy. The clergy feed Christ’s sheep; I as a monk am fed by them. They live of the altar [1 Cor. 9:13-14]; I, if I bring no gift to it, have the axe laid to my root as to that of a barren tree [Matt. 3:10]. Nor can I plead poverty as an excuse, for the Lord in the gospel has praised an aged widow for casting into the treasury the last two coins that she had [Luke 21:1-4]. I may not sit in the presence of a presbyter [see Letter 146]; he, if I sin, may deliver me to Satan, “for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved” (1 Cor. 5:5). Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood [Deut. 17:5, 12]. But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons.
St. Jerome, Letter 15: To St. Pope Damasus (c. 376/377)
(§1) Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord, “woven from the top throughout” (John 19:23) since the foxes are destroying the vineyard of Christ (Song. 2:15), and since among the broken cisterns that hold no water it is hard to discover “the sealed fountain” and “the garden enclosed” (Song. 4:12), I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church whose faith has been praised by Paul [Rom. 1:8]. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ [baptism; cf. Gal. 3:27]. The wide space of sea and land that lies between us cannot deter me from searching for “the pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). “Wheresoever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matt. 24:28). Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact. The fruitful soil of Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, bears fruit a hundredfold; but here [in the east] the seed corn is choked in the furrows and nothing grows but darnel or oats [Matt. 13:22-23]. In the West the Sun of righteousness [Mal. 4:2] is even now rising; in the East, Lucifer, who fell from heaven [Luke 10:18], has once more set his throne above the stars [Isa. 14:12]. “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14), “you are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13), you are “vessels of gold and of silver.” Here are vessels of wood or of earth [2 Tim. 2:20], which wait for the rod of iron [Apoc. 2:27], and eternal fire.
(§2) Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman [St. Peter], to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built [Matt. 16:18]! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten [Ex. 12:22]. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails [Gen. 7:23]…Consequently I here follow the Egyptian confessors [Catholics expelled by Emperor Valens] who share your faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great argosies [large ships]. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing to do with Paulinus [rival claimants of the see of Antioch]. He that gathers not with you scatters [Matt. 12:30]; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.
(§3) Just now, I am sorry to say, those Arians, the Campenses [the party of Meletius in Antioch, who worshipped outside the city], are trying to extort from me, a Roman Christian, their unheard-of formula…And this, too, after the definition of Nicaea and the decree of Alexandria [allowed three hypostases to be interpreted in a Catholic way, but did not encourage it], in which the West has joined. Where, I should like to know, are the apostles of these doctrines? Where is their Paul, their new doctor of the Gentiles?…
(§4) If you think fit enact a decree; and then I shall not hesitate to speak of three hypostases. Order a new creed to supersede the Nicene; and then, whether we are Arians or orthodox, one confession will do for us all…Or, if you think it right that I should speak of three hypostases, explaining what I mean by them, I am ready to submit…
(§5) I implore your blessedness, therefore, by the crucified Savior of the world, and by the consubstantial trinity, to authorize me by letter either to use or to refuse this formula of three hypostases…I beg you also to signify with whom I am to communicate at Antioch. Not, I hope, with the Campenses; for they—with their allies the heretics of Tarsus [likely semi-Arians or Macedonians, led by Silvanus of Tarsus]—only desire communion with you to preach with greater authority their traditional doctrine of three hypostases.
St. Jerome, Letter 16: To St. Pope Damasus (c. 377/78)
The untiring foe follows me closely, and the assaults that I suffer in the desert are severer than ever. For the Arian frenzy raves, and the powers of the world support it. The church is rent into three factions, and each of these is eager to seize me for its own. The influence of the monks is of long standing, and it is directed against me. I meantime keep crying: “He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me.” Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus [rival claimants of the see of Antioch] all profess to cleave to you [St. Pope Damasus], and I could believe the assertion if it were made by one of them only. As it is, either two of them or else all three are guilty of falsehood. Therefore I implore your blessedness, by our Lord’s cross and passion, those necessary glories of our faith, as you hold an apostolic office, to give an apostolic decision. Only tell me by letter with whom I am to communicate in Syria, and I will pray for you that you may sit in judgment enthroned with the twelve [Matt. 19:28]; that when you grow old, like Peter, you may be girded not by yourself but by another [John 21:18], and that, like Paul, you may be made a citizen of the heavenly kingdom [Phil. 3:20]. Do not despise a soul for which Christ died.
St. Jerome, Letter 22: To Eustochium (384)
I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the church, their mother: stars over which the proud foe sets up his throne [Isa. 14:13], and rocks hollowed by the serpent that he may dwell in their fissures. You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.
St. Jerome, Letter 55: To Amandus (396)
You must not speak to me of the violence of a ravisher, a mother’s pleading, a father’s bidding, the influence of relatives, the insolence and the intrigues of servants, household losses. A husband may be an adulterer or a sodomite, he may be stained with every crime and may have been left by his wife because of his sins; yet he is still her husband and, so long as he lives, she may not marry another.
St. Jerome, Letter 107: To Laeta
(§4) …Accordingly you must see that the child is not led away by the silly coaxing of women to form a habit of shortening long words or of decking herself with gold and purple. Of these habits one will spoil her conversation and the other her character. She must not therefore learn as a child what afterwards she will have to unlearn…
(§5) Let her very dress and garb remind her to Whom she is promised. Do not pierce her ears or paint her face consecrated to Christ with white lead or rouge. Do not hang gold or pearls about her neck or load her head with jewels, or by reddening her hair make it suggest the fires of gehenna. Let her pearls be of another kind and such that she may sell them hereafter and buy in their place the pearl that is “of great price” (Matt. 13:46). In days gone by a lady of rank, Prætextata by name, at the bidding of her husband Hymettius, the uncle of Eustochium, altered that virgin’s dress and appearance and arranged her neglected hair after the manner of the world, desiring to overcome the resolution of the virgin herself and the expressed wishes of her mother. But lo in the same night it befell her that an angel came to her in her dreams. With terrible looks he menaced punishment and broke silence with these words, ‘Have you presumed to put your husband’s commands before those of Christ? Have you presumed to lay sacrilegious hands upon the head of one who is God’s virgin? Those hands shall forthwith wither that you may know by torment what you have done, and at the end of five months you shall be carried off to hell. And farther, if you persist still in your wickedness, you shall be bereaved both of your husband and of your children.’ All of which came to pass in due time, a speedy death marking the penitence too long delayed of the unhappy woman. So terribly does Christ punish those who violate His temple [1 Cor. 3:17], and so jealously does He defend His precious jewels. I have related this story here not from any desire to exult over the misfortunes of the unhappy, but to warn you that you must with much fear and carefulness keep the vow which you have made to God.
St. Jerome, Letter 123: To Ageruchia (409)
(§10) | SUCCESSORS | INFALLIBILITY
The story which I am about to relate is an incredible one, yet it is vouched for by many witnesses. A great many years ago when I was helping Damasus bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west…
St. Jerome, Letter to St. Augustine, Letter 75 in St. Augustine, replying to Letters 28, 40, and 71 (404)
These quotations should not be tedious to the reader, but useful both to him and to me, as proving that, even before the Apostle Paul, Peter had come to know that the law was not to be in force after the gospel was given; nay more, that Peter was the prime mover in issuing the decree by which this was affirmed [Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15]. Moreover, Peter was of so great authority, that Paul has recorded in his epistle: “Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” (Gal. 1:18). In the following context, again, he adds: “Then, fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:1-2); proving that he had not had confidence in his preaching of the gospel if he had not been confirmed by the consent of Peter and those who were with him.
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