The 30th of September seems, throughout the
Christian Era, to have been a favourite day for things to happen. I’m too busy
just now to write about all four of the ‘30th of September Events’ I’ve
picked out: here’s just one, the first on my list:
On the 30th of September 430 (that’s A.D.)(Duh,
if you think about it) St Jerome died. Jerome translated the bible into the
Latin version that came to be known as the Vulgate. He is the patron saint of
translators. There is a wonderful painting of him by, I think, one of the
Bellinis: it shows him sitting outside his cave in the desert, raising a
didactic finger as he reads to an attentive lion who sits before him with one
paw raised as he gazes devotedly at his teacher. Actually, I’ll just do an
internet search for it; it must surely be out there. I’ll put it here if I find
it. (The expression ‘One picture is worth a thousand words’ springs to mind.
Luckily — no, not luckily, but thanks to people like Jerome — we can have
both.)
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