St. Jerome Emiliani

Venetian Soldier and Prisoner

St. Jerome Emiliani (1486–1537) was a Venetian soldier turned priest who became the great apostle of orphans and abandoned children in Renaissance Italy. Born Gerolamo Emiliani to a patrician family of Venice, he lost his father young and embraced a military career, living by his own later account a careless and worldly life. In 1511, while commanding the fortress of Castelnuovo for the Venetian Republic, he was captured and thrown into a dungeon in chains.

Conversion, Priesthood, and Care for Orphans

In prison the proud soldier learned to pray. He escaped — a deliverance he attributed, according to tradition, to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary — and hung his chains at a Marian shrine at Treviso in thanksgiving. Profoundly changed, he began to study for the priesthood while managing the education of his orphaned nephews, and was ordained in 1518. The plague and famine that devastated northern Italy in the late 1520s revealed his true vocation: he sold his possessions to feed the starving, tended the sick at the risk of his life, and began gathering orphaned children, housing them, teaching them a trade, and instructing them in the faith — using, the accounts relate, a simple question-and-answer method that made him a pioneer of catechesis.

Founding the Somaschi and Final Illness

He founded orphanages, hospitals, and homes for former prostitutes across the cities of northern Italy. In 1532, with two other priests, he established a community based at the village of Somasca, near Bergamo, devoted to the care of orphans and the poor; it became the Congregation of Regular Clerics, commonly called the Somaschi Fathers, which continues his work on several continents today. Having survived the plague once before, Jerome caught a fatal infection while nursing the sick, and died at Somasca on February 8, 1537.

Universal Patron of Orphans

He was canonized in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII, and in 1928 Pope Pius XI declared him the universal patron of orphans and abandoned youth. His memorial is celebrated on February 8. His relics rest at the Sanctuary of San Girolamo in Somasca, a place of pilgrimage in the hills above Lake Como, where pilgrims still climb the path associated with his life of penance and charity.

Significance

The journey from careless soldier to father of orphans shows how completely grace can redirect a life. In times of plague and famine Jerome gave away his possessions, sheltered abandoned children, and taught them both a trade and the faith, finally giving his life while nursing the sick. He remains a powerful intercessor for orphans and abandoned young people, and a model for all who care for children who have no one else.