The Quotable Saint Jerome

Among the illustrious writers of the early Church, Saint Jerome (345-420) had a way with words few could equal. To honor the 1600th anniversary of the death of this patron saint of librarians and Scripture scholars, the Catholic University of America Press is releasing The Quotable Jerome, a well-organized collection of memorable wisdom from this early witness to Catholic truth.

While Jerome is known for acerbic wits, editor Justin McClain shows that much of the time, Jerome’s writings are instructive and even inspiring. Homilists will easily be able to find what Jerome said on any number of topics–Scripture, the Trinity, the sacraments, persecution, heresy, divine revelation, or chastity–just to name a few. All citations are clearly sourced if the reader wants to pursue the longer passage in question.

I am upset because I am human; I control my tongue because I am a Christian. Anger surges up in my heart, but I do not give vent to it. - Homilies on the Psalms, Homily 10, Psalm 76 (77) (FOTC 48)

The doer of evil has, indeed, killed his own soul; but the heretic-the liar-has killed as many souls as he has seduced. - Homilies on the Psalms, Homily 2, Psalm 5 (FOTC 48)

The Church does not consist in walls, but in the truths of her teachings. The Church is there where there is true faith. - Homilies on the Psalms, Homily 46, Psalm 133 (134)

To err is human, but to lay snares is diabolical. - Dogmatic and Polemical Works, The Apology Against the Books of Rufinus, Book Three, paragraph 33 (FOTC 53)

So much for what Scripture says; learn now what it means. - Homilies on the Psalms, Homily 15, Psalm 82 (83) (FOTC 48)