Founded: May 1949
Location: 5550 Thornburn Street, Los Angeles
Our Lady of the Angels Region: Deanery 13

"What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known," said St. Augustine in describing the great fifth century scholar best known as the translator of the Bible.

Appropriately, there is only one church in the archdiocese named for St. Jerome, who mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic and spent more than 30 years carefully crafting the Latin version (the versio vulgata, or the Vulgate) from the Hebrew Tanakh. Although St. Jerome is also frequently known for his bad temper, it is overshadowed by his intense love for God and devotion to prayer, penance and study.

Born to a rich pagan family in 345 A.D., Jerome's other names were Eusebius, Hieronymus, Sophronius and Girolamo. He lived for many years as a hermit in the Syrian Desert; a favorite legend portrays him as having drawn a thorn from a lion's paw after which the animal stayed loyally at his side for years. He died September 30 (his feast day) in 420 A.D. in Bethlehem and his remains are buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. St. Jerome is recognized as one of the 33 Doctors of the Church.

Just four years after the end of World War II, Cardinal James Francis McIntyre established St. Jerome parish on seven and a half acres of land at the corner of La Tijera and Thornburn Streets. The west-of-downtown area was evolving from agricultural to residential with the development of the aerospace industry; the present day airport, in fact, was named Mines Field for a enterprising real estate agent.

In the 1930s, developer Fritz Burns offered tracts of inexpensive single-family homes on the site of a former hog farm at Manchester and Sepulveda that was called "Westchester." The area soon became one of Southern California's most attractive suburban communities.

The first pastor to head St. Jerome was Msgr. Thomas F. McNicholas from Baltimore, who spent his childhood in Ireland and was ordained in Rome (1932). Before a temporary church was built in 1950, he celebrated Mass in the LaTijera Theatre for some 190 area families. The school, built in 1952 and staffed by Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, quickly expanded to 16 classrooms. By 1965 the pastor was able to break ground for a new, unique church building and planned to celebrate Christmas Mass there the following year.

One month before Christmas, however, he died (at age 59) of a freak accident when he was run over by his own car while trying to stop it from rolling backward. During his 34 years of priesthood, Msgr. McNicholas was a noted educator, principal of Conaty High School and director of the Holy Name Society. His brother, Msgr. Martin McNicholas, pastor of St. John the Evangelist for over 20 years, died a year later.

Msgr. Michael Walsh, from County Waterford, headed St. Jerome for five years and was then named pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Downey, for 11 years, then retired to his native Ireland. Father Michael Haran of County Sligo was named pastor in 1972 but was unable to serve the parish actively due to ill health, and died in April 1973 at age 53.

The pastor from 1973 to 1987 was Father Edmund Maechler of Fullerton, now retired and living in Huntington Beach. An alumnus of Holy Family School, Glendale, he served the archdiocese for 38 years. His two brothers, also longtime archdiocesan priests, are deceased: Joseph in 2006 at age 71, Gerald in 2002 at age 73.

Father James Kavanagh of County Kerry was named pastor in 1988, his first after serving 24 years as an associate. But six years into his term, Northridge earthquake struck and the church was closed for repairs. Seven months later the church reopened and Father Kavanagh found the "brightness" of the repairs amazing. In his homily he described the period of renovation a "time of purification" and the interim uncertainty forced parishioners to "rediscover and focus" their lives. During repairs Mass was celebrated in the parish hall, which focused attention on the altar, and the sign of peace became far more meaningful. In 2002 Father Kavanagh was appointed pastor at St. James in Redondo Beach, where his term has been extended to 2014.

The current pastor is Msgr. Norman Priebe, originally from Nebraska, and a member of St. John's Seminary class of 1967. He was previously pastor of Holy Angels parish in Arcadia for 12 years, taught at Pomona Catholic High School and assisted at three parishes in his 41 years of service in the archdiocese.