The postage stamp has been issued in cooperation with the Parish Church of St. Mark the Evangelist in Korčula and the Croatian Conservation Institute.
The postage stamp has been issued in a 12-stamp sheet and the Croatian Post has also issued a First Day Cover (FDC).
St. Jerome (347 – 30 September 420), patron saint of Dalmatia, is recognised as a Doctor of the Church, the highest possible title in the Catholic Church. The complete translation of the Bible from Greek (the Gospels) and Hebrew (books of the Old Testament) into Latin, the so-called Vulgate, is his most famous work. It is difficult to imagine the history of the European culture and civilisation without this translation, which made the Holy Scripture widely available. It also marks a turning point in the history of translation, transforming the methodology of dead literalness into a quest for living meaning.
St. Jerome is particularly important for Croatia. In De viris illustribus, he narrates that he was born at the juncture of Dalmatia and Pannonia, in Stridon, whose location remains unknown to this day. The fact remains that he was born on present-day Croatian soil, which made him a part of Croatian history from the Middle Ages. In spite of the tradition crediting Saints Cyril and Methodius with the development of the Glagolitic script, St. Jerome was also considered the author of this alphabet, strengthening the Croatian identity. The Catholic Church did not dispute this Jerome’s role and recognised the vernacular script and language in liturgy, thus firmly binding Croatian regions to western Christianity. Glagolitic writers, and later Croatian humanists, intensively translated Jerome’s works and discussed him in their writings. Marko Marulić is believed to be the author of Anjelske kriposti (Angelic Virtues), the legend of St. Jerome written in dodecasyllabic verse. European acceptance of St. Jerome in the Croatian context is also a product of the international humanism movement.
St. Jerome, one of the most educated and most celebrated men of his time, had a hot temper and led a restless life. He is famously supposed to have said “Parce mihi, Domine, quia dalmata sum” (“Forgive me, Lord, for I am a Dalmatian”). As a boy, he moved from Dalmatia to Rome, where he received an excellent classical education, reshaping it to fit Christian principles. He travelled to Trier in Gaul, lived in Aquileia and Antioch, and spent a time in the desert of Chalcis, tormented by memories, where he was ordained to the priesthood (“I used to dread my very cell as though it knew my thoughts...”) He worked in the libraries of Constantinople, where Gregory Nazianzen sparked his enthusiasm for the famous 3rd century writer and theologian Origen, with whom Jerome later managed to disagree even in death. He rose to the rank of cardinal at the age of 39 when Pope Damasus made him his secretary and entrusted him with structuring liturgy. When Damasus died, Jerome was a candidate for the papacy, but envious clergy prevented him from ascending to the position. Hagiography collection Golden Legend tells the tale of how his enemies concealed women’s clothing in his bed to expose him to public ridicule. Jerome returned to the East, to Bethlehem, where he established two women’s and one men’s monastery, and spent thirty years writing significant commentaries about the Holy Scripture, historical works, and a number of books about theology, aesthetics and monasticism. His quote “Even safety makes me afraid” is definitely on par with modern thinking. Among other things, Jerome established a school of oration for children and cared for refugees who fled Rome during the Vandal invasion and made their way to the Holy Land. He died exhausted, alone and blind, having made his own grave at the entrance to the cave that is believed to have been the Christ’s resting place.
St. Jerome had become a myth and a legend even in his lifetime. In the most beautiful and best-known story about Jerome, he removes a thorn from the paw of a lion, who then follows him around devotedly. Some of the most famous European artists portrayed him with the lion over the centuries. Vittore Carpaccio’s cycle at the San Giorgio degli Schiavoni Croatian fraternity in Venice might be the most beautiful example. St. Jerome was also depicted as a hermit holding a Bible and a skull and as a cardinal wearing formal cardinal garb. Jacopo Tintoretto’s painting at the Korčula Cathedral, the motive on the Croatian Post’s stamp commemorating the 1600th anniversary of St. Jerome’s death, is an example of the latter.
