30 September: International Translation Day

 

St Jerome, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1607, at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta

 

International Translation Day is celebrated every year on 30 September, on the feast of St. Jerome, to pay tribute to the work of translators and interpreters who try to make the world a slightly smaller place by breaking down language barriers.

The patron saint of translators is St. Jerome, a Christian scholar and priest who was the first person to translate the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew, making it accessible to a wide audience.

In art, Jerome, who is considered a prominent member of the Roman clergy, is often portrayed either as an anachronistic cardinal (during his life, cardinals did not exist) or with something red to indicate his position. More often he is represented as a half-clothed hermit in a bare cell with only a cross, a skull and a Bible. He is also often depicted with a lion, in reference to the popular belief that he tamed a lion by healing its paw.

He is commemorated on 30 September.