Jerome was born in Venice to the nobles Angelo Aemiliani (popularly called Miani) and Eleonore Mauroceni in 1481. In his youth he served in the army of the Republic of Venice. In 1508, at a time when the Republic was in great difficulty, he was placed in command of Castelnovo, in the territory of Quero, in the mountains of Tarviso. The fortress was taken by the enemy, and Jerome was thrown, bound hand and foot, into a horrible dungeon. When he found himself thus destitute of all human aid, he prayed most earnestly to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who mercifully came to his assistance. She loosed his bonds, and led him safely through the midst of his enemies, who had possession of every road, till he was within sight of Tarviso. He entered the town, and in testimony of the favour he had received, he hung up at the altar of our Lady, to whose service he had vowed himself, the manacles, shackles and chains which he had brought with him. On his return to Venice he was ordained a priest and gave himself with the utmost zeal to exercises of piety. His charity towards the poor was wonderful, but he was particularly moved to pity for the orphan children who wandered poor and dirty about the town. He received them into houses which he hired, where he fed them at his own expense and trained them to lead Christian lives.
At this time Blessed Cajetan and Peter Caraffa, who was afterwards Pope Paul IV, disembarked at Venice. They commended Jerome‘s spirit and his new institution for gathering orphans together. They also introduced him into the hospital for incurables where he would be able to devote himself with equal charity to the education of orphans and the service of the sick. Soon, at their suggestion, he crossed over to the mainland and founded orphanages, first at Brescia, then at Bergamo and Como. At Bergamo his zeal was specially prolific, for there, besides two orphanages, one for boys and one for girls, he opened a house, an unprecedented thing in those parts, for the reception of fallen women who had been converted. Finally he took up his abode at Somascha, a small village in the territory of Bergamo near to the Venetian border, and this he made his headquarters. Here too he definitely established his Congregation (Clerici regulares S. Majoli Papiae congregationis Somaschae). In course of time it spread and increased, and for the greater benefit of the Christian republic it under took, besides the ruling and guiding of orphans and the taking care of sacred buildings, the education both liberal and moral of young men in colleges, academies and seminaries. Saint Pius V enrolled it among religious Orders, and other Roman Pontiffs have honoured it with privileges.
Entirely devoted to his work of rescuing orphans, Jerome journeyed to Milan and Pavia, and in both cities he collected numbers of children and provided them, through the assistance given him by noble personages, with a home, food, clothing and education. He returned to Somascha and, making himself all to all, he refused no labour which he saw might turn to the good of his neighbour. He associated himself with the peasants scattered over the fields, and while helping them with their work of harvesting, he would explain to them the mysteries of faith. He used to take care of children with the greatest patience, even going so far as to cleanse their heads, and he dressed the corrupt wounds of the village folk with such success that it was thought he had received the gift of healing. On the mountain which overhangs Somascha he found a cave in which he hid himself, and there scourging himself, spending whole days fasting, passing the greater part of the night in prayer, and snatching only a short sleep on the bare rock, he expiated his own sins and those of others. In the interior of this grotto, water trickles from the dry rock, obtained, as constant tradition says, by the prayers of the servant of God. It still flows, even to the present day, and being taken into different countries, it often gives health to the sick.
Jerome died of an infectious disease in 1537. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1747, and was canonised by Pope Clement XIII in 1767.
Entirely devoted to his work of rescuing orphans, Jerome journeyed to Milan and Pavia, and in both cities he collected numbers of children and provided them, through the assistance given him by noble personages, with a home, food, clothing and education. He returned to Somascha and, making himself all to all, he refused no labour which he saw might turn to the good of his neighbour. He associated himself with the peasants scattered over the fields, and while helping them with their work of harvesting, he would explain to them the mysteries of faith. He used to take care of children with the greatest patience, even going so far as to cleanse their heads, and he dressed the corrupt wounds of the village folk with such success that it was thought he had received the gift of healing. On the mountain which overhangs Somascha he found a cave in which he hid himself, and there scourging himself, spending whole days fasting, passing the greater part of the night in prayer, and snatching only a short sleep on the bare rock, he expiated his own sins and those of others. In the interior of this grotto, water trickles from the dry rock, obtained, as constant tradition says, by the prayers of the servant of God. It still flows, even to the present day, and being taken into different countries, it often gives health to the sick.
Jerome died of an infectious disease in 1537. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1747, and was canonised by Pope Clement XIII in 1767.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Sprung from the powerful aristocracy which won for Venice twelve centuries of splendour, Jerome came into the world when that city had reached the height of its glory. At fifteen years of age he became a soldier and was one of the heroes in that formidable struggle in which his country withstood the united powers of almost all Europe in the League of Cambrai. The golden city, crushed for a moment but soon restored to her former condition, offered her honours to the defender of Castelnovo, who like herself had fallen bravely and risen again. But our Lady of Tarviso had delivered him from his German prison only to make him her own captive. She brought him back to the city of Saint Mark, there to fulfil a higher mission than the proud Republic could have entrusted to him. The descendant of the Aemiliani captivated, as was Lawrence Justinian a century before, by Eternal Beauty, would now live only for the humility which leads to Heaven, and for the lofty deeds of charity. His title of nobility will be derived from the obscure village of Somascha where he will gather his newly recruited army, and his conquests will be the bringing of little children to God. He will no more frequent the palaces of his patrician friends, for he now belongs to a higher rank: they serve the world, he serves Heaven. His rivals are the Angels whose ambition, like his own, is to preserve unsullied for the Father the service of those innocent souls whom the greatest in Heaven must resemble.
“The soul of the child,” as the Church tells us today by the golden mouth of Saint John Chrysostom, “is free from all passions. He bears no ill will towards them that have done him harm, but goes to them as friends just as if they had done nothing. And though he be often beaten by his mother, yet he always seeks her and loves her more than anyone else. If you show him a queen in her royal crown, he prefers his mother clad in rags, and would rather see her unadorned than the queen in magnificent attire, for he does not appreciate according to riches or poverty, but by love. He seeks not for more than is necessary, and as soon as he has had sufficient milk he quits the breast. He is not oppressed with the same sorrows as we, nor troubled with care for money and the like. Neither is he rejoiced by our transitory pleasures, nor affected by corporal beauty. Therefore our Lord said, ‘Of such is the kingdom of Heaven,‘ wishing us to do of our own free will what children do by nature.”
Their Guardian Angels, as our Lord Himself said, gazing into those pure souls, are not distracted from the contemplation of their heavenly Father: for He rests in them as on the wings of Cherubim since baptism has made them His children. Happy was our Saint to have been chosen by God to share the loving cares of the Angels here below before partaking of their bliss in Heaven.
WITH Vincent de Paul and Camillus of Lellis, you, O Jerome Aemilian, complete the triumvirate of charity. Thus does the Holy Spirit mark His reign with traces of the Blessed Trinity. Moreover, He would show that the love of God which He kindles on Earth can never be without the love of our neighbour. At the very time when He gave you to the world as a demonstration of this truth, the spirit of evil made it evident that true love of our neighbour cannot exist without love of God, and that this latter soon disappears in its turn when faith is extinct. Thus, between the ruins of the pretended reform and the ever-new fecundity of the Spirit of holiness, mankind was free to choose. The choice made was, alas! far from being always conformable to man‘s interest, either temporal or eternal. With what good reason may we repeat the prayer you taught your little orphans: “Lord Jesus Christ, our loving Father, we beseech you, by your infinite goodness, raise up Christendom once more, and bring it back to that upright holiness which flourished in the Apostolic age.”
You laboured strenuously at this great work of restoration. The Mother of Divine Grace, when she broke your prison chains, set your soul free from a more cruel captivity, to continue the flight begun at baptism and in your early years. Your youth was renewed as the eagle‘s, and the valour which won you your spurs in earthly battles, being now strengthened tenfold in the service of the all-powerful Prince, carried the day over death and Hell. Who could count your victories in this new militia? Jesus, the King of the warfare of salvation, inspired you with His own predilection for little children: countless numbers saved by you from perishing and brought in their innocence to His Divine caresses, owe to you their crown in Heaven. From your throne, where you are surrounded by this lovely company, multiply your sons. Uphold those who continue your work on Earth. May your spirit spread more and more in these days when Satan‘s jealousy strives more than ever to snatch the little ones from our Lord. Happy will they be in their last hour who have accomplished the work of mercy pre-eminent in our days: saved the faith of children, and preserved their baptismal innocence! Should they have formerly merited God‘s anger, they may with all confidence repeat the words you loved so well: “O sweetest Jesus, be not to me a Judge, but a Saviour!”
