Saint Cajetan, Priest

Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene was born in 1480 in Vicenza, studied law at Padua and served at the papal court in Rome. Ordained in 1516, he worked in hospitals and in a Roman confraternity devoted to prayer and works of mercy. In 1524, with Gian Pietro Carafa, the future Pope Paul IV, he founded the Theatines, priests who lived in poverty without owning property or asking for alms and who worked to reform the clergy. During the sack of Rome in 1527 soldiers tortured him to make him give up money he did not have. In Naples he helped found a pawnshop that lent to the poor without interest. He died there on 7 August 1547 and was canonized in 1671.