Saint Jerome’s posthumous life: aspects of his reception in the 20th Century

This paper commemorates the 1600th year anniversary of Jerome’s death starting with a short mention of Hieronymi Stridonensis Vita by Erasmus, which inaugurated the modern investigation into the figure of Jerome, and by examining three examples of his contemporary reception. In the singular essay Sous l’invocation de Saint Jérôme by the French writer and translator Valery Larbaud (1946), Jerome’s life is imagined as the large city of ‘Hiéronymopolis’ where three itineraries are possible: one that is imaginary to Stridon, Rome and Bethlehem; one that is iconographical through the paintings of Raffaello, Correggio and Domenichino, and one that is literary through Jerome’s own works, which are divided into many ‘city districts’, where an impressive bridge, the Vulgata, connects Jerusalem to Rome. In the eccentric novel Jérôme ou de la traduction by the French-Canadian writer Jean Marcel (1990), it is the famous lion of Hieronymus who narrates the main episodes of the Saint’s life, especially regarding his translations, which are an existential metaphor for the passage from the ancient eastern world to early Christian Rome. The poetic movie by the Brasilian director Júlio Bressane, São Jerônimo (1999), is not a biographical reconstruction of Jerome’s life, but rather a ‘fresco’, which consists of some moments of his life and some iconic symbols (the skull, the lion, the desert). To conclude an amazing prayer is included, which was composed by Valery Larbaud. Actually it is only a tiny sample of Jerome’s quotations, which should be said to the saint before beginning a translation in order to obtain Jerome’s patronage and support.