Saint Jerome Emiliani, Confessor
S. Hieronymi Aemiliani Confessoris
Saint Jerome Emiliani, a Venetian nobleman converted through captivity and grace, gave the remainder of his life to orphans, the poor, and the abandoned, and is honoured as their heavenly patron.
Saint Jerome Emiliani was born of a noble family at Venice about the year 1486. As a young man he followed the career of arms in the service of his city, and was for a time worldly and careless of God. Taken prisoner in war and held in chains, he turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary in his distress, and his deliverance became the beginning of a true conversion of life.
Father of orphans
Returning to Venice a changed man, Jerome devoted himself to penance, prayer, and the works of mercy. When famine and plague struck the city and the surrounding country, he gave himself without reserve to the care of the sick and the burial of the dead, and was moved with special compassion for the multitude of children left orphaned and abandoned. He gathered these little ones, fed and clothed them, taught them the faith, and trained them in honest work, becoming to them a true father.
To carry on this work he founded a congregation of clerks regular, known from the town of Somasca as the Somaschi, dedicated to the care of orphans, the relief of the poor, and the Christian education of the young. He is remembered as a pioneer in the patient instruction of children in the truths of the faith. Worn out by his labours among the sick, he himself caught the plague and died at Somasca in 1537, a victim of his own charity.
Patron of orphans and abandoned children
Saint Jerome Emiliani was canonised in 1767, and in 1928 he was declared the universal patron of orphans and abandoned children. The collect of his feast addresses God as the Father of mercies, and prays that by the merits and intercession of blessed Jerome, whom God willed to be a helper and father of orphans, we may faithfully keep the spirit of adoption by which we are called, and truly are, the children of God. In him the Church honours the tender mercy that gathers up the least and most forsaken in the name of Christ.
The Collect
O God, the Father of mercies, by the merits and intercession of blessed Jerome, whom thou didst will to be a helper and father of orphans, grant; that we may faithfully keep the spirit of adoption whereby we are called, and are, thy children.
Deus, misericordiárum pater: per mérita et intercessiónem beáti Hierónymi, quem órphanis adjutórem et patrem esse voluísti: concéde; ut spíritum adoptiónis, quo fílii tui nominámur et sumus, fidéliter custodiámus.
Patronage
He is the heavenly patron of orphans and abandoned children; the Somaschan Fathers continue his work for the young and the poor.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 8 February as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Jerome Emiliani?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 20 July as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 8 February.
Who was Saint Jerome Emiliani?
He was a Venetian nobleman of the early sixteenth century who, after a conversion occasioned by his captivity in war, gave his life to the care of orphans, the sick, and the poor. He founded the Somaschan congregation and is honoured as the patron of orphans and abandoned children.
Why is he the patron of orphans?
Saint Jerome devoted himself especially to gathering, feeding, sheltering, and teaching children left orphaned and abandoned by famine and plague, and founded an order to continue this work. In 1928 Pope Pius XI named him the universal patron of orphans and abandoned children.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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