St. Jerome Emiliani

St. Jerome Emiliani was born in 1486 into a patrician family of Venice and died on 8 February 1537. As a young man he followed the career of a soldier, and while defending a fortress against the enemies of Venice he was captured and imprisoned in chains; in his cell he underwent a profound conversion, attributing his escape to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and afterward gave himself entirely to God and to the service of the poor.

Ordained a priest, he devoted his life and fortune to the care of orphans, the sick, and the destitute, especially during the famine and plague that ravaged northern Italy, gathering abandoned children, feeding them, and teaching them the faith and honest trades. He founded a congregation, the Clerics Regular known as the Somaschi, to continue this work, and he died of a contagious disease caught while tending its victims. Honored as a patron of orphans and abandoned children, he was canonized in 1767, and his memory is kept on 8 February.