This is the splendor of the Church of St. Jerome of the Croats, so called because of the Croatian community in Rome that meets there.
After major restoration work, the church displays the same magnificence it had when Pope Sixtus V, himself of Croatian descent, entrusted it to the Croats in 1589.
At the center, this fresco recalls the legend of St. Jerome taming a lion.
CARD. PIETRO PAROLIN
Vatican Secretary of State
“We must remember the example of St. Jerome: to tame the lions that surround us, we must first tame the lions within us.”
The Secretary of State celebrated Mass for the 16th centennial of the death of St. Jerome.
That same day, the pope's apostolic letter, Scripturae Sacrae Affectus, was published. In it, Pope Francis invited the faithful to follow the legacy of the person responsible for the translation of the Bible into Latin.
CARD. PIETRO PAROLIN
Vatican Secretary of State
“Whoever nourishes himself each day with the Word of God becomes like Jesus: a contemporary of the person he encounters. He isn't tempted into falling into the sterile nostalgia for the past nor in utopias about the future.”
He also recalled the place where St. Jerome died, Bethlehem, to explain the need to return to the origin of everything.
