Saint Jerome Emiliani

Nothing seemed more dreadful to him than the death he expected at any moment. But soon he feared something much more intensely than the loss of his body: that of his soul. Without any human help, he saw no resource but in God: God whom he had so long forgotten, God whom he had so grievously offended! Hence bitter regrets for his disorders; he acknowledged, while shedding a torrent of tears, that God was only just, and that he had deserved what he was suffering. While these sad thoughts cast him into extreme affliction, suddenly a divine illumination enlightened his soul and brought back calm: he remembered Our Lady of Treviso, the Comforter of th e Afflicted, the Refu Notre-Dame de Trévise Site of the Virgin's sanctuary where the saint fulfilled his vow. ge of Sinners. Immediately, melting into tears and prayers, he begged her to have pity on the most miserable of sinners, and to obtain for him grace and mercy from her Son. He made a vow to visit her holy temple in Treviso barefoot, to have masses celebrated there, and to proclaim her benefits there by word of mouth and through paintings.

Scarcely had he pronounced his vow when the prison was illuminated by a celestial light. The Mother of God appeared to him, called him by his name, gave him the keys to his irons and his dungeon, and commanded him to go out and faithfully execute his promise. She led him likewise through the enemy army, to the gate of Treviso. He entered, went to the church of the Virgin, deposited at the foot of her altar the keys of his prison, the irons of his neck, his feet, and his hands, hung his marble ball from the vault, published all these facts by word of mouth, and had them recorded before a notary and painted in pictures.

Upon the peace, the cities that had been taken from the Venetians having been returned to them, they had no sooner received Castelnovo than the senate, to recognize the generosity of Emiliani who had so courageously defended that place, gave this castle to his family to enjoy for thirty years, and Emiliani was made podestà or head of justice; but he did not hold this position for long, having left it after the death of his brother to go to Venice to take up the guardianship of his nephews. While managing their property, he took great care to have them raised in piety; he even served as an example to them: for, since he had left the office of podestà, he fulfilled the promises he had made to God to change his life; and, not wanting to do anything without the advice of a wise director, he chose a regular canon of the Congregation of the Lateran, who combined great piety with profo Congrégation de Latran Order of the spiritual director of Jerome. und knowledge, and abandoned himself entirely to the guidance of this holy religious, who made him trample underfoot everything that smacked of vanity and luxury. Emiliani therefore renounced all the comforts and conveniences of life. He no longer had any other feelings about himself than those that a profound humility could inspire in him. He forgot the nobility and dignities of his house, and retained, of all the advantages of his birth, only a certain politeness, which served him later to win many souls for God. He afflicted his body with extraordinary fasts and macerations: he allowed himself only a few hours of sleep, spending the rest of the night in prayer and orison. His occupations, during the day, were to visit churches and hospitals, providing the sick with all the spiritual and temporal help they needed. His liberality did not extend only to the poor in the hospitals and the indigent he found in the streets; but, when he saw that some young women were in danger of prostituting their honor, he provided them with dowries and advantageous matches to provide for them.

Everyone was surprised by this change; but Emiliani was even more so himself, when he considered that he had been so long without feeling the weight of the chains and all the horrors of the slavery from which God had delivered him: he could not think of the disorders of his past life without shedding torrents of tears. The more he advanced on the path of virtue, the more he felt inflamed with love for God and for his neighbor. He had the occasion to exercise this virtue during a general famine that affected Italy in the year 1528. The country people, for lack of bread, were forced to eat even the most unclean animals, or to content themselves with a few roots to preserve their languishing lives. Death carried off many every day and left on the faces of those who remained grim signs that their turn would not be long in coming. The prefects of the annona or provisions, in Venice, first knew how to remedy the shortag e thro Venise Final location of the transfer of relics in 1200. ugh their care, by bringing in grain from several places; but this kind of abundance that they had procured for the capital attracted such a great quantity of people from all parts that the shortage soon began again. Emiliani, more than all the others, had compassion for so many miserable people; he sold even his furniture to relieve them, and his house became a hospital where he received them and provided them with all the help he could render them on this occasion.

A kind of contagious disease having followed this famine, Saint Jerome Emiliani was attacked by it and reduced to such an extremity that, after having received all the Sacraments, he awaited only the moment of death. But, fearing that he had not sufficiently satisfied for his sins through penance, he asked God for health, to perform a longer penance in this world, and to execute what He would deem appropriate to command him for the salvation of his neighbor. His prayer was answered: his strength returned, and he continued his exercises of piety with even more zeal. To fulfill the promises he had just made to God, he rendered an account of the administration of their property to his nephews, stripped himself of the senator's robe, donned a poor garment he had bought for some needy person, took wretched shoes, and appeared in this state in the middle of the streets of Venice. Some mocked him as a man who had lost his mind; others, who knew him better, admired his humility; many remained in suspense and waited to see what the effects of this new way of life would be. They did not have to wait long to see them.

Famine and contagion had carried off a great number of people, both in the city and in the countryside; everywhere one found a multitude of orphans, deprived of parents and support, reduced to begging, without any education, and thereby exposed to every vice. For the love of God, Emiliani made himself the father and mother of those who had none left. He prepared a house to receive them, went to find them in the streets and squares, procured masters for them to teach them trades, without allowing any of them to beg anymore, supplementing with his charity what was still lacking from the benefit of their small labor. He was especially careful for the salvation of their souls. In the morning, he had them say their prayers, hear Holy Mass, and learn to read, to ward off any evil thought: manual labor was varied by moments of silence, by readings that were done for them, by the singing of hymns and litanies, in particular the Holy Rosary. Twice a day, before and after work, he taught them the elements of Christian doctrine. While washing their hands, before sitting down to eat, they recited the Miserere for the souls in Purgatory. They went to confession every month and on the principal feasts of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin. They were all dressed in white. On feast days, our Saint led them in procession, singing litanies in the streets and squares of Venice, to visit the principal shrines or to hear some sermon. The whole city flocked to this edifying spectacle. People were moved to tears to see this noble senator, this brave captain, dressed as a poor man and become the father of orphans.

The piety and modesty of these children softened all hearts; most of the spectators wept with joy; others, joining in chorus with the children who sang the litanies of the Blessed Virgin, responded devoutly *Ora pro nobis*. It was a commotion of piety for the whole city. Everyone wanted to see the orphans' house. What was seen there that was admirable soon attracted sufficient support.

Saint Emiliani then began to visit the surroundings of Venice. He found even greater misery, young people and old men reduced to dying of hunger: he took care of both. Venice entrusted him with the Hospital for the Incurables. Emiliani took charge of it with a willing heart, in concert with his two friends, Saint Gaetano di Thiene and Saint Pietro Carafa, of Naples. Moreover, he had other powerful supporters. When he wanted to obtai saint Gaëtan de Thienne Saint who collaborated with Jerome at the Hospital of the Incurables. n so me particular grace saint Pierre Caraffe Future pope who collaborated with Jerome in Venice. from God, he would have four little orphans under the age of eight pray with him, and he never failed to obtain what he asked for.

Emiliani's zeal for works of mercy grew with his success. Seeing those in Venice in a prosperous state, he entrusted their care to some pious friends and came to found similar ones in Padua and Verona. In the latter city, he lived for some time unknown among the poor, begging for his bread as they did, in order to have a more natural opportunity to instruct them in the truths of the Christian religion. The hospital of Verona was built through his intervention. Having moved from that city to Brescia, in Lombardy, he founded a second orphanage there, with the same order as in Venice. A wealthy bourgeois of Brescia wanted to make him his universal heir upon his death; but he refused the donation and persuaded this man to give his property to the great hospital, on the condition that it would be obliged to provide the orphans with medicine when they were sick, to provide ornaments for their church, and to have their house built: which Saint Charles Borromeo, being in Brescia as an apostolic visitor, had the administrators of this hospital execute.

In Bergamo, in Lombardy , and i Bergame City where the saint founded several establishments and evangelized. n the surrounding areas, he found other opportunities to exercise his charity. Due to famine and plague, most houses were empty of inhabitants, especially in the countryside. It was harvest time: the wheat was ripe, but there were neither reapers nor sickles; the harvest was about to be lost. Emiliani, making himself all things to all men, gathered sickles from everywhere and as many peasants as he could engage, placed himself at their head, and reaped the wheat, despite the unbearable heat of the dog days in Italy. While the others took their rest or their meal, he applied himself to prayer, contenting himself for all food with a little bread and water. That is not all. To lighten their arduous work, the reapers were accustomed to murmuring some frivolous or even bad songs. Emiliani, with his ordinary grace, knew how to turn them away from it. He himself intoned in a harmonious voice, now the Lord's Prayer, now the Angelic Salutation or the Apostles' Creed; the other reapers repeated after him, so that the whole countryside resounded with the praises of God.

In the city of Bergamo itself, he founded two orphanages, one for boys, the other for girls. But above all, he undertook a completely new work: it was to withdraw fallen girls and women from disorder. Having converted a few, he first placed them with virtuous ladies. He went to find the owners whose houses were used for libertinage, and obtained that they would henceforth close them to scandal. A greater number of prostitutes having converted then, he gathered them in a separate house, with a rule to strengthen them in their good resolutions and preserve them from relapse.

The Bishop of Bergamo was then Louis Lappomani, a prelate illustrious for his doctrine and the innocence of his life, who was later one of the presidents of the Ecumenical Coun cil of Trent. H Louis Lappomani Bishop of Bergamo and supporter of Jerome. e was a generous supporter of Saint Jerome Emiliani in his good works in Bergamo. With the blessing of this pious and learned bishop, our Saint traveled as an apostle through the most remote villages and hamlets of the diocese, accompanied by some children who were the most instructed in Christian doctrine. This was his method: having arrived in a place, he first went to the church to implore the grace of God and the intercession of the patron saint for his undertaking. A small bell brought on purpose then invited all the inhabitants to gather. When there was a certain number, Emiliani addressed the poorest and the children, taught them in a familiar way the principal mysteries of the Christian faith, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Apostles' Creed, the Commandments of God and the Church, sometimes even how to make the sign of the cross; for the ignorance of some went as far as that. His little catechists seconded him wonderfully and attached themselves by preference to children of their own age. The success was prodigious. Better instructed, the poor people of the countryside began a better life, renounced their enmities, their blasphemies, and their thefts. All these vices were replaced by the contrary virtues. The example of Saint Emiliani was even more effective than his words: night and day they saw him occupied with instructing, praying, or visiting the sick.

When he returned to Bergamo, where fame had published all these wonders, two holy priests joined him: they were Alexander Besuzio and Augustine Barilo; rich in the goods of the earth, they distributed them to the indigent, to imitate the voluntary poverty of Saint Emiliani. At that same time, he was creating two new establishments in Como, through the liberality of Bernard Odescalchi, who ended up giving him his own person. Another illustrious associate was Count Primus, descended from a sister of Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, a contemporary of Charlemagne.

The question then arose more than ever among the pious friends to form themselves into a regular Congregation and to choose a headquarters. They did not want to place it in the cities, but in some secluded place that could serve as a seminary for them. The village Somasque Village chosen as the headquarters of the congregation and the place of the saint's death. of Somasca, between Milan and Bergamo, seemed favorable to them for this. He nce their name of Somascan Clercs réguliers Somasques Religious order serving the church of Saint Mary in Milan. Regular Clerics. They have also sometimes been given the name of the Congregation of Saint Mayeul, because this Saint is the patron of a college in Pavia, the conduct of which Saint Charles Borromeo gave to this Congregation. After having sought a convenient house to receive the poor orphans, they made it their dwelling, and the holy Founder prescribed the first regulations there for the maintenance of the congregation. Poverty appeared there above all things, as much in clothing as in furniture. Delicate dishes were banished from their table, and they were content with the food of the peasants and the poor. Reading was done during meals. Silence was strictly observed and austerities were very frequent. There was a holy emulation among them as to who would practice the most mortifications, and Emiliani was the first to excite the others by his example. They joined to mortification a prompt obedience and much humility, spent part of the night in prayer, and, during the day, conferred together on holy things, or occupied themselves with some manual labor, and went into the surrounding areas to serve the sick and instruct the poor country folk. The main goal of the Somascans was from then on and is still today the instruction of children and young ecclesiastics.

In 1540, the Congregation of the Somascans was approved as a religious Order by Paul III. Pius V and Sixtus V confirmed this ap proval u Paul III Pope who approved the Somascan Order in 1540. nder the rule of Saint Augustine, the one in 1571, the other in 1586. The Somascans have houses only in Italy and in the Swiss cantons that profess the Catholic religion. Their Order is divided into three provinces: that of Lombardy, that of Venice, and that of Rome. The General is triennial and is drawn alternately from each of these provinces.

Saint Jerome Emiliani went to Milan and Pavia to found other establishments, to which Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, contributed greatly. Passing back through Somasca, he went as far as Venice, but he did not stay there long. A horrible plague having invaded the territory of Bergamo, he returned there promptly to serve the sick. He was attacked himself and died in Somasca, on February 8, 1537, at the age of fifty-six.

He was beatified by Benedi ct XIV and Benoît XIV Pope who beatified Jerome Emiliani. canonized by Cle ment XIII. I Clément XIII Pope who granted indulgences for the cult of Saint Gregory. n 1769, the Holy See approved an office composed in his honor, and permitted it to be recited on July 20.

Saint Jerome Emiliani is represented: 1st, holding chains in his hand and with cannonballs near him, to recall his captivity; 2nd, sometimes having a cuirass near him or under his feet, to indicate that he renounced military dignities; 3rd, having at his side the little unfortunate ones whom he made it his glory to relieve, as we have reported in his life.

He is the patron of the Somascans, of Venice, and of Treviso.

Cl. Life of Saint Jerome Emiliani, written in Latin by Augustin Tortora, Milan, 1629; Hélyot, History of Religious Orders; Redonnant.