Annotation CCLXXXIII

”Every one shall bear his own burden.” — Galatians 6:5

Whether the saints departed can pray for us.

Jerome, [in] the third book on the epistle to the Galatians, subjoins to this saying such an exposition: “OBSCURELY, [though,] we are taught by this little sentence a new dogma, which lies hidden — [namely] that, while we are in the present age, we can help one another mutually, whether by prayers or by counsels; but when we shall have come before the tribunal of Christ, neither Job, nor Daniel, nor Noah can pray for anyone: but each one bears his own burden.” This exposition seems to suffer no little of difficulty; for if it is true that the saints, after this life, cannot pray for us: why does he mark this assertion by the appellation of a “new,” and “lying-hidden,” or “suspect” dogma? and if the dogma is new and suspect: why does he make Paul the author and teacher of a suspect dogma? It is probable that Jerome uttered these words by antiphrasis and ironically, against the new dogma of Vigilantius, who, in his hiding-places, taught that the saints who have migrated from this life can help no one by their prayers. For the words of this passage also seem to allude to the words of Vigilantius, which Jerome, in the declamation against Vigilantius, reports from that man’s [own] book, saying: “THOU sayest in thy little book, that while we live, we can pray mutually for one another; but after we shall have died, no one’s prayer is to be heard for another — especially since the martyrs, begging the vengeance of their blood, have not been able to obtain [it].”