ST. JEROME By Paul Monceaux
M. Paul Monceaux' vivid and entertaining study of the early years of St. Jerome, excellently translated by Mr. F. J. Sheed (Sheed and Ward, 64.), belongs to the new school of hagiography. With an almost alarming candour, M. Monceaux dwells upon the human imperfections of his hero : and whilst constantly reminding Us that Jerome was a saint, seldom allows us to forget for very long his mordant pen, his love of controversy, his intense self-oecupation--awkward character- istics for an ascetic and Father of the Church. His unsparing wit and eye for actuality goes further afield, and strips the glamour of romantic holiness from the Hermits of the Desert— from St. Antony, "a true peasant of Egypt, a dreamer, headstrong, totally illiterate, with an equal loathing for society and the alphabet," to those who over-peopled Jerome's own solitude and made it noisy with theological strife. Modern research has rectified the traditional picture of Jerome in many particulars, and by its aid and that of his own self-revealing writings we can get a vivid impression of his circumstances and personality. This lively and erudite book only takes the story to his thirtieth year, when he left the unpeaceful desert in disgust and returned to the great world. It is to be hoped that M. Monceaux will continue at a future date his brilliant reconstruction of the Patristic age. The book is charmingly produced, and illustrated by numerous reproductions from the Old Masters.
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