Some saints seem made for controversy. It is not that they enjoyed arguing. Rather, their holy daring was foolishness to some and a stumbling block to others. And if they were intellectuals, the saints defended their folly of the Cross. One could say that Saint Jerome is the patron saint of controversialists.
Take That, You Guys
The monks’ grounds for disapproval were based on two things: both, in modern terminology, were a question of a woman’s abilities and a woman’s rights. A woman, they said, has no right to be taught anything by a man, especially a monk. Further, a woman has no need to be taught, especially something as holy as Scripture, because she cannot learn. Knowing how false and destructive these two claims could be, Jerome took up his pen like a sword and responded to his opponents as only a proto-feminist could.
Jerome’s defense of the feminine mind was founded upon experience, authority, and a censure of men. First of all, he appealed to his experience in teaching women. He had great success teaching Paula, her daughter Eustochium, as well as Blesilla and Marcella. They had mastered Greek and Hebrew so well they could recite the Psalter in either language. As for authority, Jerome pointed out many different passages of Holy Scripture in which women take up learned roles, including prophetesses such as Huldah (2 Kings 22), leaders such as Deborah (Judges 4-5), and teachers such as Priscilla (Acts 18:26).
Finally, Jerome said that these women were more assiduous for study than most men in his day: “Did men occupy themselves with the sacred Scriptures and demand as many questions as women do,” he would teach them. But then, as is often the case now, the men were not as interested in religion. Therefore, since these women so ardently thirsted for the Truth, it was their right to learn and his duty to teach.
The Monk and His Lady Friends
His two most famous sayings are both negative: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,” and, “The enemies of the Church should be also my enemies.” Perhaps a saint with a gentler temperament — one not hardened by the hot Syrian sun, all-night prayer vigils, and superhuman fasts — perhaps such a saint would have been more positive sounding. But not Jerome, whose feast day is today. He was a controversialist through and through.
In the Catholic Church, some controversies are primarily about theological ideas, such as the divinity and humanity of Christ, or the relation between good works and merit. Other controversies are more about personalities, as when a cleric or someone representing the Church causes scandal. As one might expect, Saint Jerome was the subject of both kinds of controversy and often at the same time.
One particular dispute that Jerome caused is what some have called “The Ancient Christian Feminist Controversy,” or, “Jerome’s Defense of the Feminine Mind.” The wrangle began when a number of monks noticed that their more famous and intelligent contemporary was spending much of his time writing to his lady friends. As if this breach in the monastic habit were not enough, Jerome even had the gall to teach them — and what is more, he taught them about Holy Scripture! This infamous trinity of vices caused many of them to write condemnatory letters to Jerome in Bethlehem as well as to spit every time his name was mentioned.
Those Brainy Female Saints
What was the result of Jerome’s radical insistence on the dignity of women, on their essential ability and right to learn Holy Scripture? The final product is what we might call eternal feminine sanctity, that is to say, they became saints. Recognizing that some of these women reached the very heights of holiness, Jerome set down their life stories for posterity (and perhaps also as a proof of his victory in the controversy). For example, in one place he describes the virtues of St. Paula, whose funeral was attended by bishops, presbyters, deacons, and crowds of supportive monks, all of whom witnessed to her sanctity.
In another place, Jerome writes to Principia about the life of St. Marcella, in which he shows her tender affection for his spiritual daughters:
I am so anxious myself to do justice to her merits that it grieves me that you should spur me on and fancy that your entreaties are needed when I do not yield even to you in love of her. In putting upon record her signal virtues I shall receive far more benefit myself than I can possibly confer upon others.
In all, Jerome did more than any other single Church Father to promote the dignity of and reverence for women in his day. He wrote to them more than any other; he wrote about them more than any other; he taught them, defended their rights, and encouraged their abilities. Even more than that, holy women greatly influenced Jerome: due to their insistence, Jerome wrote commentaries on the letters of St. Paul and many other biblical books, and after the holy women died, he implored their help so that he might one day reach the heaven they already enjoyed.
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange
Br. Ezra Sullivan, O.P., a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, is a Dominican student brother of the Province of St. Joseph (Eastern Province, USA) is currently studying for the priesthood at the Dominican House of Studies. Check out www.vocations.blog.com .
