Today February 8

Today is the feast of St. Jerome Emiliani (1486 - 1537). He probably never anticipated being hailed a saint when he was younger, since he was too busy being a soldier and a nobleman in Venice. But, as soldiers often are, he was defeated and taken prisoner. While in prison, he had a deep conversion (he was already a Catholic, but an "irreligious and careless"one) -- a not uncommon occurrence -- and a miraculous release from there -- a definitely uncommon one! Supposedly the Virgin Mary herself helped him break out. I don't know. I do know he hung up his chains (the very ones that had shackled him) at the altar of the Virgin and turned his life over to God.

He studied for the priesthood after regaining his freedom, became ordained (in 1518) and opened orphanages (at his own expense), first in just a rented room in his hometown of Venice and then in actual buildings throughout Northern Italy and in the Catholic Swiss cantons. He loved his little boys and once when they were dying of thirst, he supposedly extracted water for them from a rock. Neat. On a less Old-Testament-style level, he was the first to teach his (spiritual) children their catechism in the form of questions and answers.

He was a humble and down-to-earth man; though born a noble, he'd grab a hoe or other farm implement and work right alongside the peasants in the fields, all the while talking to them about God. Apparently it worked; he made many conversions. He founded a small order, named the Clerks Regular of Somascha (named after the little town between Bergamo and Milan), to minister to the orphans. He is now their patron saint. He died on this day from an infectious disease he'd caught while tending the sick. St. Jerome Emiliani, pray for us.