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 Saint Jerome in the Wilderness Death of Leonardo da Vinci Issue Scott 1716 (2019) September 30 is the feast day of Saint Jerome, one of the thirty-eight "Doctors of the Church". Although not specifically commemorated on a stamp by Vatican City, he is the subject of the painting shown above, an unfinished work by Leonardo da Vinci, entitled Saint Jerome in the Wilderness. The stamp was issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death in 1519. The stamp was issued as a four-stamp mini-sheet, which is shown at the bottom of this article. He is also depicted on the 2012 souvenir sheet showing Raphael's Madonna of Foligno, which is also presented below. And, in 2020, a special postmark was used by Vatican City to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of his death. Saint Jerome was born around the year 342. A convert to Christianity, around the age of thirty he became a monk. Traveling to the deserts of Syria, for four years he lived a life of austerity and isolation in the desert. When he came out of the desert, he was ordained a priest and would study under a fellow Church Doctor, Saint Gregory Nazianzen. Around the year 382, Jerome went to Rome and, while there, impressed Pope Damasus I and became the pope’s secretary. It was at this point that Jerome began the monumental task of translating the Bible into Latin from original Greek and Hebrew texts. This translation came to be called “the Vulgate”. In the words of a modern scholar: "No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work."The Council of Trent declared the translation “inerrant” (without error), and the text came to be used universally within the Church. Saint Jerome is thus considered one of the foremost scholars of sacred scripture in the Western Church. His works can be summarized by the statement from his contemporary and fellow Doctor of the Church, Saint Augustine: "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known."  Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Leonardo da Vinci Painting in the Vatican Museums From Wikimedia (in the public domain) The depiction of Saint Jerome in Leonardo da Vinci's work above portrays him as he may have appeared during his time in Palestine. As stated by James Hamilton in a Vatican Notes essay of the artwork in 2020: "[T]he emaciated saint is shown on a rocky ledge, half clothed in a loose cloak, a rock in his right hand (the rock likely used for self-flagellation and penance)."The muscular detail shown attests to da Vinci’s portrayal of exactness to anatomic correctness. The painting contains two other elements associated with Saint Jerome: a cardinal’s hat (at his left side on the ground) and a lion (a tribute to the legend of Jerome kindly removing a thorn from the lion’s paw and the resulting obedience of the lion to Jerome). Jerome died in Bethlehem on September 30, 420. As one of the four Great Latin Fathers, he was one of the first saints to be venerated as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. His remains are buried in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.  Saint Jerome in the Wilderness Death of Leonardo da Vinci Issue Mini-sheet Scott 1716M (2019)  Raphael's Madonna of Foligno (Saint Jerome on the right side) Scott 1497 (2012)  Vatican City: Special Postmark for the 1600th Anniversary of the Death of Saint Jerome September 30, 2020 REFERENCES: |
