The saint most often called the patron of reading, books and scholars is St. Jerome (about 347–420), who spent his life studying and translating the Bible into Latin and who famously wrote that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, is traditionally shown teaching her daughter to read, and St. Augustine was converted when he heard a child’s voice saying, “Take up and read.” St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Lawrence are also patrons of librarians. Below are their stories, Augustine’s own account, and prayers for readers, students and book lovers.
A short prayer before reading, written for this page:
Lord, open my mind and my heart as I read.
Help me to understand what is true, to remember what is good,
and to find you in every page. St. Jerome, pray for me. Amen.
St. Jerome, patron of scholars and libraries
Jerome was born around 347 in Dalmatia and studied in Rome, where he loved the classical authors so much that, he confessed, he once dreamed he was judged for being a follower of Cicero rather than of Christ. He became a monk, learned Hebrew in the desert, and was asked by Pope St. Damasus to revise the Latin Bible. He spent his last thirty-four years in Bethlehem, translating the Scriptures and writing commentaries; his translation, the Vulgate, became the Bible of the Western Church for more than a thousand years. He died in 420. He is the patron of scholars, translators, librarians and Bible students. His feast day is September 30. See the St. Jerome prayer.
The prayer of his feast from the 1916 daily missal:
O God, who didst vouchsafe to provide for thy Church thy blessed Confessor Jerome, its greatest Doctor for the explanation of the holy scriptures, grant we beseech thee, that through his prayerful merits we may be able to perform what he taught by deed as well as by word. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God world without end. Amen.
St. Anne, who taught Mary to read
The Bible does not tell us about Mary’s childhood, but a much-loved tradition in Christian art shows St. Anne with a book open on her lap, teaching the young Mary to read the Scriptures. For this reason St. Anne is invoked by mothers, grandmothers, teachers and children learning to read. See the St. Anne prayer.
St. Augustine: “Take up and read”
In the summer of 386, in a garden in Milan, Augustine was weeping over his inability to give up his sins when he heard a child’s voice from a nearby house. He tells the story in his Confessions (Book VIII, chapter 12):
So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; Take up and read.” Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
The passage he read was Romans 13:13–14. See the St. Augustine prayer.
Other patron saints of reading and books
- St. Catherine of Alexandria, the learned virgin martyr, patron of students, philosophers and librarians. See St. Catherine of Alexandria.
- St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr, patron of librarians and archivists, who kept the Church’s records in Rome. See the St. Lawrence prayer.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, patron of students and schools. See the St. Thomas Aquinas prayer.
What Scripture says
St. Paul to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:13, Douay-Rheims):
Till I come, attend unto reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine.
Psalm 118:105 (Douay-Rheims):
Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths.
Prayers for readers
Written for this page.
Before reading the Bible
Holy Spirit, you inspired the Scriptures.
Open my heart as I read your word today,
and help me to put it into practice. Amen.
For a child learning to read
St. Anne, you taught Mary to read the word of God.
Pray for (name) as they learn to read.
Give them patience, joy and a love of good books. Amen.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the patron saint of reading?
St. Jerome, patron of scholars and librarians. St. Anne is invoked for children learning to read.
Who is the patron saint of books and libraries?
St. Jerome, with St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Lawrence, patrons of librarians.
What does “take up and read” mean?
It is the phrase (“tolle, lege” in Latin) that St. Augustine heard before opening the Bible and being converted, as he tells in his Confessions.
More prayers
- St. Jerome prayer
- Lector guide
- Patron saint of teachers
- Patron saint of the internet
- Doctors of the Church
- Patron saints
Texts and sources
- St. Augustine, Confessions, Book VIII.12, trans. E. B. Pusey (1838), public domain (Project Gutenberg #3296).
- 1 Timothy 4:13 and Psalm 118:105 (Douay-Rheims).
- The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916), St. Jerome (September 30), Collect, public domain (archive.org).