September 30th is the Feast of St. Jerome. There is a legend of how one day a lion entered the Monastery of St. Jerome, which sent most of the brothers scurrying off. Jerome greeted the lion, and upon discovering the lion had a thorn in his paw removed the thorn. The lion became a constant companion to St. Jerome, but the other brothers pointed out that the rule for the monastery was that all had to take part in work. The lion was then assigned the task of watching after their donkey and leading him back and forth to the pasture from which the donkey would carry their wood. One day the lion fell asleep in the pasture, and merchants stole the donkey. The lion was then falsely accused by the brothers of having eaten the donkey. As his punishment, the lion was forced to take the donkey's place in carrying in the wood. Despite the falsity of the accusation, brother Lion obeyed his superior, St. Jerome. One day, after having finished his task, the lion was out in the pasture and saw a caravan passing by. He spotted brother Donkey among the caravan, and charged the caravan to scare off the merchants and rescue brother Donkey. They returned to the monastery and proved that brother Lion had been innocent of the charge against him.
