Portal:Saints/Selected article/September 2006

Hieronymus as Cardinal by El Greco

The 'Martyrologium Hieronymianum, the "Martyrology of Jerome", was the most widely used and influential of the medieval lists of martyrs. Compiled probably in the late 6th century by anonymous monks in Gaul from calendars or martyrologies originating in Rome, Africa the Christian east and locally, Martyrologium Hieronymianum was the first general or "universal" martyrology, and the ultimate source of all later Western martyrologies.

Attributed to Saint Jerome, the MH contains a reference to him derived from the opening chapter of his Vita Malchi (392 AD) where Jerome states his intention to write a history of the saints and martyrs from the apostolic times: