Gerolamo Emiliani

Who they were

Jerome was the fourth son of the impoverished noble Emiliani family of Venice; his father took his own life when Jerome was about ten. He joined the army in 1509, and in 1511, defending the fortress of Castelnuovo di Quero on the Piave, was taken prisoner. In thirty days of hunger and fear he learned to pray again and promised Our Lady to change his life if freed.

Released, he kept his vow, and gave himself to orphans, the homeless young and the sick, teaching them a trade and the catechism, with prayer and work as the pillars of his method. His companions became the Clerics Regular of Somasca, named after Somasca, where the work began; Pius V raised them to an order in 1568. Jerome had already died of plague in 1537.

The miracles

Since 1928 he has been patron of orphans and abandoned youth. The miracles examined for his canonisation are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

A soldier freed from prison by Our Lady spent the rest of his life freeing children from poverty and ignorance. 'Begin now to be what you will be hereafter.'