[Obviously, the photo below was not taken during the general audience. But, since the previous description mentioned the private audience, I figured I would post this photo. ELS]
Romania's Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu (L) meets Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican November 7, 2007. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN)
Gods angry man, His crotchety scholar
Was Saint Jerome,
The great name-caller
Who cared not a dime
For the laws of Libel
And in his spare time
Translated the Bible.
Quick to disparage
All joys but learning
Jerome thought marriage
Better than burning;
But didnt like womans
Painted cheeks;
Didnt like Romans,
Didnt like Greeks,
Hated Pagans
For their Pagan ways,
Yet doted on Cicero all of his days.
A born reformer, cross and gifted,
He scolded mankind
Sterner than Swift did;
Worked to save
The world from the heathen;
Fled to a cave
For peace to breathe in,
Promptly wherewith
For miles around
He filled the air with
Fury and sound.
In a mighty prose
For Almighty ends,
He thrust at his foes,
Quarreled with his friends,
And served his Master,
Though with complaint.
He wasnt a plaster sort of a saint.
But he swelled mens minds
With a Christian leaven.
It takes all kinds
To make a heaven.
From “Times Three” by Phyllis McGinley
Some kind person posted a link to a letter written by St. Jerome, very interesting to read. This particular letter is found at this link:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.CXXVII.html
The introduction reads:
Letter CXXVII. To Principia. This letter is really a memoir of Marcella (for whom see note on Letter XXIII.) addressed to her greatest friend. After describing her history, character, and favourite studies, Jerome goes on to recount her eminent services in the cause of orthodoxy at a time when, through the efforts of Rufinus, it seemed likely that Origenism would prevail at Rome (§§9, 10). He briefly relates the fall of the city and the horrors consequent upon it (§§12, 13) which appear to have been the immediate cause of Marcellas death (§14). The date of the letter is 412 a.d.
On the same site is a very lengthy list of his letters:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.toc.html