St. Jerome Emiliani: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: February 8 (optional memorial)
Patron of: Orphans and abandoned children.
About St. Jerome Emiliani
St. Jerome Emiliani was born in Venice in 1486 into a noble family and became a soldier. In 1511, while defending the fortress of Castelnuovo for the Venetian Republic, he was captured and chained in a dungeon. In his misery he turned to God and prayed to the Blessed Virgin, and he later credited her with his escape. He walked to her shrine at Treviso and left his chains there in thanksgiving, and from then on he lived for God.
After his conversion Jerome was ordained a priest and devoted himself to the victims of famine and plague that struck northern Italy in the 1520s. He was especially moved by the many children left orphaned and wandering the streets. He gathered them, fed them, taught them the faith and a trade, and founded orphanages, hospitals, and homes for women in need. The priests and laymen who joined him became the Congregation of Clerics Regular of Somasca, the Somascans. Jerome died in 1537 after catching the plague while nursing the sick. In 1928 Pope Pius XI named him the universal patron of orphans and abandoned children.
Prayers to St. Jerome Emiliani on Daily Catholic Prayers
Browse every saint in our Catalog of Saints A–Z.
Comments