Yes, as the life of St. Jerome amply illustrates. (Although I'm counting on grand achievements such as Bible translation not being necessary either.) Here's an article about him that's a little out of the ordinary, highlighting him as an early champion of the dignity of women. Severely criticized for teaching the Bible to them, Jerome had a pithy reply:
Finally, Jerome said that these women were more assiduous for study than most men in his day: “Did men occupy themselves with the sacred Scriptures and demand as many questions as women do,” he would teach them. But then, as is often the case now, the men were not as interested in religion. Therefore, since these women so ardently thirsted for the Truth, it was their right to learn and his duty to teach.His feast is equally a good excuse to offer a selection from The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley:
"The Thunderer"
God's angry man, His crochety scholar,
Was Saint Jerome,
The great name-caller,
Who cared not a dime
For the laws of libel
And in his spare time
Translated the Bible.
Quick to disparage
All joys but learning,
Jerome thought marriage
Better than burning;
But didn't like woman's
Painted cheeks;
Didn't like Romans,
Didn't like Greeks,
Hated Pagans
For their Pagan ways,
Yet doted on Cicero all his days.
A born reformer, cross and gifted,
He scolded mankind
Sterner than Swift did;
Worked to save
The world from the heathen;
Fled to a cave
For peace to breathe in,
Promptly wherewith
For miles around
He filled the air with
Fury and sound.
In a mighty prose,
For Almighty ends,
He thrust at his foes,
Quarreled with his friends,
And served his Master,
Though with complaint.
He wasn't a plaster sort of saint.
But he swelled men's minds
With a Christian leaven.
It takes all kinds
To make a Heaven.
