60 And so it was with Jerome himself: afflicted with many mental anxieties and bodily pains, he yet ever enjoyed an interior peace. Nor was this due simply to some idle pleasure he found in such studies: it sprang from love of God and it worked itself out in an earnest love of God's Church - the divinely appointed guardian of God's Word. For in the Books of both Testaments Jerome saw the Church of God foretold. Did not practically every one of the illustrious and sainted women who hold a place of honor in the Old Testament prefigure the Church, God's Spouse? Did not the priesthood, the sacrifices, the solemnities, nay, nearly everything described in the Old Testament shadow forth that same Church? How many Psalms and Prophecies he saw fulfilled in that Church? To him it was clear that the Church's greatest privileges were set forth by Christ and His Apostles. Small wonder, then, that growing familiarity with the Bible meant for Jerome growing love of the Spouse of Christ. We have seen with what reverent yet enthusiastic love he attached himself to the Roman Church and to the See of Peter, how eagerly he attacked those who assailed her. So when applauding Augustine, his junior yet his fellow-soldier, and rejoicing in the fact that they were one in their hatred of heresy, he hails him with the words: Well done! You are famous throughout the world. Catholics revere you and point you out as the establisher of the old-time faith; and - an even greater glory - all heretics hate you. And they hate me too; unable to slay us with the sword, they would that wishes could kill. Sulpicius Severus quotes Postumianus to the same effect: His unceasing conflict with wicked men brings on him their hatred. Heretics hate him, for he never ceases attacking them; clerics hate him, for he assails their criminal lives. But all good men admire him and love him. And Jerome had to endure much from heretics and abandoned men, especially when the Pelagians laid waste the monastery at Bethlehem. Yet all this he bore with equanimity, like a man who would not hesitate to die for the faith: I rejoice when I hear that my children are fighting for Christ. May He in whom we believe confirm our zeal so that we may gladly shed our blood for His faith. Our very home is - as far as worldly belongings go - completely ruined by the heretics; yet through Christ's mercy it is filled with spiritual riches. It is better to have to be content with dry bread than to lose one's faith.
Source: Spiritus Paraclitus (Vatican.va)