21 September St Matthew the Apostle
Among the early followers of Jesus and mentioned as a former tax collector
from Capernaum, he was called into the circle of the twelve.
He was called Levi and the son of Alpheus. He may have collected taxes for
Herod Antipas; Jews who collected taxes were despised, but he would be
literate in Aramaic and Greek. He was one of the witnesses of the
Resurrection and the Ascension. Later Church Fathers claimed that
Matthew preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea before
going to other countries. Muslim tradition says that he went to Ethiopia with
Andrew.
There is a tradition that he died a martyr. Consensus in the Middle Ages
(e.g. Augustine of Hippo) puts the Gospel of Matthew at about 15 years after
the Ascension and being the first.
Modern scholars think that the Gospel was originally written in Greek by a
non-eyewitness, whose name is unknown and depended on sources like
Mark (and Q).
30 September St Jerome (ca 347-420)
Jerome was a Latin Christian priest, theologian and historian who became a
Doctor of the Church.
He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, the ‘Vulgata’. and
for commentaries to the ‘Gospel of the Hebrews,’ thought to be by Matthew.
Born in Stridon, he went to Rome to study in 366. He merrily indulged in
student life and repented it bitterly afterwards. He was converted to
Christianity in Rome and travelled to Gaul and settled in Trier to study
theology. About 373 he went on a long journey through Asia Minor and to
Antioch. Seriously ill, he devoted himself there to study the Bible, learning
Hebrew to translate the ‘Gospel of the Hebrews’ into Greek.
Ordained in 378 in Rome, he worked for the Pope and undertook a revision
of the Latin Bible based on Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
Forced to leave Rome, he went back to Antioch and by 388 to Jerusalem.
He spent the rest of his life as a hermit in a cell near Bethlehem. In his last
34 years he wrote his most important works, among them his version of the
Old Testament from the Hebrew text. He is the most voluminous writer of
Latin Christianity. He died near Bethlehem in 420, his remains were later
taken to Rome. He is often depicted with a lion, after the story of his removal
of a thorn from the lion’s paw. He is the Patron Saint of translators,
librarians and encyclopaedists.
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Brigitte Williams