171—St. Jerome’s Letters to Friends in Mourning—David G. Bonagura, Jr.

By Catholic Culture Podcast ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 15, 2023 | In The Catholic Culture Podcast

Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS Feed | YouTube Channel

This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help!

A new collection of letters shows the tender side of St. Jerome, as he writes to console various friends on the death of their loved ones. Translator and editor David G. Bonagura, Jr., joins the podcast to discuss Jerome’s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning.

Topics include:

• Jerome’s Christian twist on the “consolatory epistle” genre practiced by many great pagan writers before him
• The network of holy friends and disciples (like St. Paula) to whom and about whom he writes in these letters
• Jerome’s tactics for helping someone move out of an excessively long mourning period
• How the death of a loved one is an opportunity to give ourselves more radically to God
• Jerome’s recommendation of continence to married couples beyond their child-bearing years

Buy Jerome’s Tears https://sophiainstitute.com/product/jeromes-tears/

Theme music: “Franciscan Eyes”, written and performed by Thomas Mirus. Download the Catholic Culture Podcast soundtrack.