65.

 Hence was Jerome wondrously uplifted to love for and knowledge of Christ through his study of the Bible in which he discovered the precious pearl of the Gospel: "There is one most priceless pearl: the knowledge of the Savior, the mystery of His Passion, the secret of His Resurrection."[¹²⁵] Burning as he did with the love of Christ we cannot but marvel that he, poor and lowly with Christ, with soul freed from earthly cares, sought Christ alone, by His spirit was he led, with Him he lived in closest intimacy, by imitating Him he would bear about the image of His sufferings in himself. For him nought more glorious than to suffer with and for Christ. Hence it was that when on Damasus' death he, wounded and weary from evil men's assaults, left Rome and wrote just before he embarked:
Though some fancy me a scoundrel and guilty of every crime - and, indeed, this is a small matter when I think of my sins - yet you do well when from your soul you reckon evil men good. Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world. . . What real sorrows have I to bear - I who fight for the Cross? Men heap false accusations on me; yet I know that through ill report and good report we win the kingdom of heaven.[¹²⁶]