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SAINT JEROME EMILIANI Confessor, 1486-1537 Feastday - February 8 JEROME EMILIANI was a soldier, a very successful one. The son of Angelo Emiliani and Eleanore Mauroceni, he was born in Venice, reaching manhood in the troubled times of the early sixteenth century, and served in the army of the Venetian Republic. When the League of Cambrai was formed against Venice by the Western powers, he was appointed to the command of Castelnuovo, the fortress near Treviso. Castelnuovo, fell to the imperial forces and Jerome was taken prisoner and chained in a dungeon. He saw his earlier careless life for what it was and turned in prayer to God. After his escape, under seemingly miraculous conditions, he went at once to a church in Treviso and vowed himself to the service of our Lady. In 1518 he was ordained in Venice, where he had gone to take charge of the education of his nephews. The soldier became the priest, the protector of children. He hired a house for the orphans he had gathered together, fed and clothed them at his own expense, and instructed them in Christian doctrine. In 1532 the bishop of Verona sent for him, and he established an orphanage and a hospital there. Jerome continued to found orphanages-at Brescia, Bergamo, and Como. At Bergamo he established the first home for penitent women. About 1533, with two other priests, Jerome organized a congregation of men who wished to join his work. The first house was at Somascha, on the Venetian frontier, and from it came the name of the order, the Somaschi. Their principal work was, and still is, the care of orphans and the instruction of youth. Amartyr to his own zealous charity, Jerome contracted a contagious disease in 1537, while tending the sick, and died on February 8, at Somascha. A happy combination of cheerful and optimistic temperament with ardent faith and love of God made Jerome a potent factor in the Catholic reform of those fateful times. He was canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767 and is the patron saint of orphans and abandoned children.--222.126.78.209 11:08, 1 December 2005 (UTC)charry barsanas....
