St. Jerome Emiliani
(1481?-1537)
A careless and irreligious soldier for the city-state of
Venice, Jerome was captured in a skirmish at an outpost town and chained in a
dungeon. In prison Jerome had a lot of time to think, and he gradually learned
how to pray. When he escaped, he returned to Venice where he took charge of the
education of his nephews—and began his own studies for the priesthood.
In the years after his ordination, events again called
Jerome to a decision and a new lifestyle. Plague and famine swept northern
Italy. Jerome began caring for the sick and feeding the hungry at his own
expense. While serving the sick and the poor, he soon resolved to devote
himself and his property solely to others, particularly to abandoned children.
He founded three orphanages, a shelter for penitent prostitutes and a hospital.
Around 1532 Jerome and two other priests established a
congregation, the Clerks Regular of Somasca, dedicated to the care of orphans
and the education of youth. Jerome died in 1537 from a disease he caught while
tending the sick. He was canonized in 1767. In 1928 Pius Xl named him the
patron of orphans and abandoned children.
Comment:
Very often in our lives it seems to take some kind of “imprisonment” to free us
from the shackles of our self-centeredness. When we’re “caught” in some
situation we don’t want to be in, we finally come to know the liberating power
of Another. Only then can we become another for “the imprisoned” and “the
orphaned” all around us.
Quote:
“‘The father of orphans and the defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity; only
rebels remain in the parched land’ (Psalm 68).... We should not forget the
growing number of persons who are often abandoned by their families and by the
community: the old, orphans, the sick and all kinds of people who are
rejected…. We must be prepared to take on new functions and new duties in every
sector of human activity and especially in the sector of world society, if
justice is really to be put into practice. Our action is to be directed above
all at those men and nations which, because of various forms of oppression and
because of the present character of our society, are silent, indeed voiceless,
victims of injustice” (Justice in the World, 1971 World Synod of Bishops).
Patron Saint of:
Orphans, abandoned children
Source:http://www.americancatholic.org/
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