Novena of Saint Jerome
By Fr. Giuseppe Oddone.
Translated by Fr. Remo Zanatta and Fr.Julian Gerosa
- Death – The Spiritual Testament of St. Jerome (1537)
8.1. The last days of Jerome in Somasca
Towards the end of 1536, a letter arrived to Jerome from the Carafa, elected cardinal by Paul III, inviting him to Rome to organize the works of charity. Jerome felt tired. He spoke to his collaborators about the letter. He felt that his strength was lacking and that his death was imminent. He warned his companions: “I think I will go to Christ”. On January 11,1537, he wrote a very strong letter of intense spirituality to correct some of his collaborators in the work of Bergamo. In the meantime, the plague spread into the San Martino valley and struck his little orphans. One of them, in delirium saw the throne of Jerome in Heaven. A child senses his extraordinary holiness.
Jerome didn’t spare himself. In fact, he took care of the sick at home and abroad. He had to feel ill suddenly in the first days of February 1537; he was rescued and taken to the house of the Ondei, where he stayed some years earlier.
8.2. A woman named Marta
According to the testimonies of the Beatification Process, a woman named Marta assisted Jerome in his last days. She was a widow. She tenderly gave him all the attention that her piety and feminine genius suggested in the care of Jerome’s body that was falling apart in its illness. Certainly, she was the one who summoned the old men of Somasca and his companions around Jerome who was dying. Jerome’s companions were also struggling with many people who contracted the plague.
On the night between February 7 and 8, when Jerome was in agony, she called the servants of the poor and the religious collaborators such as the Capuchin Friar Jerome Molfetta and the Dominican Friar Tomaso of Bergamo.
The witnesses said this about Jerome: “It seemed that he had paradise in his hand. […] He would speak only of following Christ. […] He made several exhortations to his own companions and always with his face so cheerful and serene, that people were falling in love with Christ by looking at him. As his spiritual testament he left these strong and clear programs, summarized in four statements: follow the way of the Crucified One, despise the world, love one another, and serve the poor. Whoever does such works will never be abandoned by God.
When Jerome died, Martha, who was at his side, composed her body for burial with the help of the religious. It looked the same gesture that some women had made with Jesus.
It is not a surprise for us to know that a woman has cured Jerome and witnessed his passing. On the contrary, the sweet and holy Martha has represented in some way for Jerome all the women he had met in the path of his life: his mother Eleonora, his sister-in-law Cecilia, his grandchildren Cristina, Elena and Dionora, the women of charity who had collaborated with him, the living saints, the poor women of the street that he had sought and redeemed.
After having converted and devoted his life for the service of the destitute children and of the poorest, at the end of his earthly journey, Jerome really deserved, like Jesus, this feminine presence and caress.
8.3. The Spiritual Testament
Before dying, according to tradition, Jerome had traced a red cross on the wall so that he could contemplate it. The cross was at the beginning and end of Jerome’s journey and with the cross he left this life to enjoy eternity. Jerome was a great man and great Christian, an assiduous imitator of Christ. His whole life was essentially a journey of conformity to Christ, a continuous growth day after day. In the events and unforeseen events of his life, Jerome discerned the will of God and faced every new situation to the point of death with enthusiasm and ever greater fervor. Jerome’s path must also be our path to overcome lack of passion and to live the Christian life in conforming to Christ with ever greater fervor.
8.3.1. Follow the way of the Crucified One
The spiritual journey of Jerome begins (wept at the foot of the Crucified) and ends with the contemplation of the cross (follow the way of the Crucified).
For Jerome, the cross is the banner of Jesus, under which he must be a soldier, armed with living faith, hope, and most ardent charity. The cross is our “forma mentis” (mindset), it is renunciation of the devil, holiness of the soul, promise of paradise. The cross has to be always before our eyes. The cross is the cast in which we are molded, a sign on our forehead and chest, a shield against the evil one, an assimilation to Christ. We will carry the cross, we will live and die on the cross with Christ, we will rise again and be glorious with him.
To follow Jesus Crucified means for Jerome to experience him, to enter his house and to dwell there (Jn 1:35ff). He wrote, “Do they not know that they have offered themselves to Christ and are in his house and eat his bread?” (Letter 6)
To follow Christ Crucified also means to have intimacy with him, to seek a personal and loving knowledge that surpasses all knowledge (Jn 13:23ff). We must have the name of Jesus on our mouths, carry him sculpted in our hearts, sealed in our minds, painted in our souls.
Even Jerome, like the apostle John, receives the testament of love of Jesus Crucified and takes Mary into his own home, into the heart of his heart (Jn 19:25). He invites us to be frequent in prayer before the Crucified One, he begs to convert ourselves for the wounds of Christ (letter 6). Following Jesus Crucified has the requirement to love Mary, our advocate, mother of grace and mercy (Our Prayer).
To love Jesus Crucified is to run towards the tomb, to understand the scriptures, to see and believe, to bear witness to his resurrection (Jn 20:1-8; 1Jn 1:1ff.): “I have shown you the love of Christ in deed and in words, so that the Lord has glorified Himself in you through me” (Letter 2).
To follow Jesus means to live the present, remaining on the battlefield behind Jesus and Peter, reaching out into the future while waiting for the Lord. it is to fight on the field, being strong in the way of God, being strong in faith, being with Christ, being firm in tribulations.
To follow Jesus means to proclaim God’s love to the whole Church in spite of the terrible trials (Rev 1:9). In our prayer we pray for the whole Church, heavenly, earthly, missionary, on the way to purification.
To follow Christ Crucified means to be in an adoring silence, to understand the meaning of suffering before being thrown into struggle.
8.3.2. Despise the world
The word “world” has three different senses in the Evangelist John:
– the universe with the earth (the world was made through him: see Jn 1:10);
– the whole of human beings (God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son: see Jn 3:15);
– the false values on which human civilization and the lives of people are built. This world hates the believer, as it hated Jesus (Jn 7:7; 15:18). “World” is understood by St. Jerome in this last sense. He said, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. All that is in the world, the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, does not come from the Father, but from the world; and the world passes with his concupiscence. Whoever does the will of God remains forever (1 Jn 2:15-17)”.
The false values of the world run through all history, threatening our life, that of our communities and that of the whole Church. It is the world without charity, without humility of heart, without prayer, without penance and obedience. It is the world that lives in the absence of God. It is a world of obstinate and hypocritical people (Letter 6).
The contempt of the world implies, as for Jerome, an ascetic journey, which is made of:
– the purifying way: mortification of the throat, eyes and tongue, correction of one’s own personal defects;
– the enlightening way: prayer, listening and reading of the word of God, choice of friends;
– the unitive way: contemplation of the cross, sacrament of the Eucharist, gifts of the Spirit (see “Life of Jerome”, written by the Anonymous).
In our prayer we recite “three Pater” (three Our Father) and “three Ave” (Three Hail Mary), with the arms crossed, in memory of the three nails with which he wanted to be crucified so that he might grant us the grace to despise all things in the world.
8.3.3. Love each other
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” (Jn 13:34). “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love is from God” (1 Jn 7:7, 11:21).
In the life of the community, love must come from God. The community is based on the acceptance and on the gift of the other as loved by God, on the spirit of love, the only one who can build the Christian community, on receiving from others and radiating the love of Christ on others.
“We must not love in words and language, but in deeds and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18). St. Jerome says, “I have shown you the love of Christ in deed and in words” (Letter 2). “Others have this desire for words, I have shown through deeds the love of work” (Letter 3). Our charity must be most ardent, always accompanied by good works, willing to “suffer” for Christ and for our brothers and sisters. Do to your brothers what the charity of Christ shows you […]. Confirm them in the love of Christ (1 and 3 letters). The Lord will show you if you can do suddenly an act of charity (3 letter). Tell your brothers and sisters the words that the love of Christ inspires you.
Fraternal communication and action are born of Christ’s love, merging prayer, word, and action in the grace of working.
8.3.4. Serve the poor
Like Jesus, Jerome is the man in the apron who washes the feet of his brothers (Jn 13:1-10). This gesture was repeated many times by him, both in the Company of Divine Love and at the end of his life, washing the feet of orphans. This is how he signs, “The servant of the poor, Ieronimo” – This is how he defined himself, “Ieronimo Miani, first father of those poor”.
The poor served by Jerome are the hungry for the famine of 1527-1528, the destitute of the Hospital of Bersaglio (poor of all kinds), the incurables, the destitute children, the converted, the peasants of the countryside…
Whoever does such works will never be abandoned by God. Reflecting on mercy, we must remember that God is love. Love is the essence, the destiny of God, manifested in Christ Jesus. This love is absolute grace: God loves us even if we are sinners, rebels or far away. God’s love must take root in our hearts and become the light of life: “He who loves his brother dwells in the light”; if you obscure your brother, you obscure yourself.