Patron Saint of Orphans and Abandoned Children
It is claimed for St Jerome Emiliani that he was the first to introduce the practice of teaching Christian doctrine to children by means of a set catechism drawn up in the form of questions and answer
20th July: ST JEROME EMILIANI, FOUNDER OF THE SOMASCHI (A.D. 1537)
Jerome was born at Venice in 1481, the son of Angelo Emiliani (vulgo Miani) and Eleanor Mauroceni, and served in the armies of the republic during the troubled times of the beginning of the sixteenth century. When the League of Cambrai was formed to resist the Venetians, he was appointed to the command of the fortress of Castelnuovo, in the mountains near Treviso; at the fall of the town he was taken prisoner and chained in a dungeon. Hitherto he had led a careless and irreligious life, but now he sanctified his sufferings by prayer and turning to God, and, in circumstances which appeared to be miraculous, he was enabled to make his escape. He made his way at once to a church in Treviso and, probably later, hung up his fetters as votive offerings before the altar of our Lady, to whom he had vowed himself; and was given the post of mayor in the town. But he shortly after returned to Venice to take charge of the education of his nephews and to pursue his own sacerdotal studies, and in 1518 he was ordained.
Famine and plague having reduced many to the greatest distress, St Jerome devoted himself to relieving all, but particularly abandoned orphans. These he gathered in a house which he hired; clothed and fed them at his own expense, and instructed them in Christian doctrine and virtue. After himself recovering from the plague, he resolved in 1531 to devote himself and his property solely to others, and founded orphanages at Brescia, Bergamo, and Como, a shelter for penitent prostitutes, and a hospital at Verona. About 1532 Jerome with two other priests established a congregation of men, and at Somascha, between Bergamo and Milan, he founded a house which he destined for the exercises of those whom he received into his congregation. From this house it took its name, the Clerks Regular of Somascha, and its principal work was the care of orphans. The instruction of youth and young clerics became also an object of his foundation, and continues still to be. It is claimed for St Jerome Emiliani that he was the first to introduce the practice of teaching Christian doctrine to children by means of a set catechism drawn up in the form of questions and answers. He was so unwearying in looking after the peasants around Somascha that they credited him with the gift of healing; he would work with them in the fields and talk of God and His goodness while he worked. While attending the sick in 1537 he caught an infectious disease of which he died on February 8. He was canonized in 1767, and in 1928 was named patron-saint of orphans and abandoned children by Pope Pius XI.
After his death his congregation suffered considerable vicissitudes, but it had the approval of St Charles Borromeo and in 1540 was recognized by Pope Paul III; today, however, the Somaschi number but few members, who conduct schools and orphanages in Italy.
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints