Saint Heliodorus

Bishop and Confessor
(c. 332–c. 390)

Saint Heliodorus was born around 332 in Dalmatia and became one of the most devoted friends of Saint Jerome, with whom he travelled to the East in search of the monastic life that both men desired. They journeyed together to the desert of Chalcis in Syria, where Jerome settled among the hermits and devoted himself to learning Hebrew and to the severe austerities of the desert life. Heliodorus accompanied him for a time but found that his vocation led him in a different direction.

He returned to Italy and to active pastoral ministry, a decision that moved the solitude-loving Jerome to write him one of the most famous of his letters, urging him to return to the desert and depicting the delights of the contemplative life with passionate eloquence. The letter shows us something of the warmth and intensity of the friendship between the two men, even as it reproaches Heliodorus for what Jerome saw as a failure of resolution. In fact, Heliodorus' return to the pastoral ministry was entirely in accordance with God's will for him, as his subsequent life would show.

He was elected Bishop of Altinum, a city at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea near Venice, and served his diocese with great pastoral zeal for many years. He remained in close correspondence with Jerome throughout his life, and it was at his request that Jerome undertook several of his most important biblical works, including commentaries on several of the minor prophets. This friendship between the ascetic scholar of Bethlehem and the pastoral bishop of Altinum is one of the attractive features of the early Church, showing that holiness took many forms and that those who pursued it along different paths could nonetheless sustain each other in charity.

Heliodorus died around the year 390, having served his diocese faithfully and having contributed to the great work of Jerome through his friendship, his support, and his requests. He is remembered as a man who knew great saints and who, in his own way and in his own sphere, lived a life of genuine holiness. His feast is celebrated on July 3rd in some calendars, though it appears in July in older martyrologies.