Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest

Jerome Emiliani was born in Venice in 1486 and became an officer of the Venetian army. In 1511 he was captured at Castelnuovo and chained in prison; tradition holds that after he vowed himself to the Virgin Mary his chains fell off and he escaped. He then gave himself to prayer and works of mercy and was ordained a priest in 1518.

During the famine and plague of 1528 he took orphans into his house and went on to found orphanages, hospitals and houses for repentant women across northern Italy. His companions became the Somascan Fathers, named after the village of Somasca near Bergamo. He caught the plague while nursing the sick and died there on 8 February 1537. In 1928 he was named patron of orphans and abandoned children.