St. Jerome feast day

Tomb of St. Jerome

It's the jewish New Year today. And the western part of the City is very quiet as no work is allowed. The eastern part which is arab is bustling with activity as everyone goes there to do their shopping ... out of necessity.

Today for us is the feast of St. Jerome. Born in Dalmatia, he came to Bethlehem and lived in a  cave next to the Grotto were Christ was born, in order to translate the hebrew and greek Bible into Latin. There was solemn Mass and lots of activities organized by the parish there. Masses were  celebrated both in the cave where he lived and at his tomb which is in the next cave.

Cave where Jerome lived & worked

Today also begins the 4 day celebration of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. We celebrate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis meeting the Sultan of Damietta and securing the right to protect and serve in the Christian Holy Places of the Holy Land. There is a series of conferences based on this encounter and each evening ends with Vespers sung with one or some of the other christian denominations. I'd like to attend some of these talks but my work schedule is pretty heavy. Still I'll try to attend at least one.

I've been awake since 2.30am as I was afraid I might oversleep and miss class at 4am. Now it's exactly 15 hours since I woke up. I'm exhausted. I think St. Jerome suffered from insomnia too. Blessed Allegra surely did. I remember hearing the old friars telling me how in his bouts of insomnia he would go to the library at night to read or to the chapel to pray. Well I'm nowhere near his or Jerome's genius ....