The early Christians mortified the flesh through martyrdom and through what has been called "confession of the faith": accepting torture in a joyful way. As Christians experienced persecution, they often embraced their fate of suffering due to their love for Christ and the transformation they said they experienced from following him; these individuals became martyrs of the Christian faith. Saint Jerome, a Western church father and biblical scholar who translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), was famous for his severe penances in the desert.