Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Benedict XIV., and canonized by Clement XIII. In 1769 an office in honour of the saint was approved by the Holy See, and appointed to be recited on July 20th.] This great saint was born at Venice, in the year 1481, and was the son of Angelo Emiliani and Eleonora Marocini, both issued from illustrious houses, which had furnished Venice with senators and grand captains, in the times of her greatness. At fifteen, Jerome, who had lost his father, joined the troops Venice was raising in 1495, and led a dissolute life, which caused both his mother and brother great distress. In 1508, he served in the Venetian troops raised to oppose the league of Cambrai, and the defence of Castelnuovo, on the confines of Treviso, was entrusted to Emiliani. The walls were ruinous, and in spite of a gallant defence, the place was taken by the Germans, the garrison put to the sword, and Emiliani thrown into a noisome dungeon, laden with chains, and linked by the feet to a ball of stone.

In the darkness of his prison, he reviewed his past life, and resolved, should he escape, to endeavour to recompense for the evil he had done, and the opportunities he had wasted. He made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to visit the pilgrimage chapel at Treviso, dedicated to her, should she deliver him. Scarcely had he done so when, we are told, he found the key to his fetters. A fair form stood compassionately ‘at his side, and helped him to shake them off, led the way out of the dungeon, opening all the doors before him, and finally conducted him in disguise out of the castle. He hastened to Treviso, where he published his miraculous escape, and hung up his chains and stone ball to the roof of the chapel. The story no doubt antedates this final incident. He cannot have escaped with his chains and fetters, and stone ball, if he shook them off in the prison. But no doubt later, when the Venetian government gave him the podesta-ship of Castelnuovo, and confirmed it to him and his family for thirty years, he recovered the chains and ball from the dungeon, and sent them to the chapel at Treviso.

After his marvellous escape, Jerome at once cast off the chains of his old sins and evil habits, as he had the bonds in the dungeon. He devoted himself to the care of the sick and starving in 1523, the terrible year of plague and famine. He was himself struck down with disease, but providentially recovered; and this sickness confirmed his resolution to devote himself entirely to the sick and suffering. With his fortune he built several hospitals for the sick, and orphanages for the poor children who had been deprived of their parents by famine or pestilence. He dressed his orphans in white, and on festivals they walked through the streets and squares of Venice chanting litanies. He visited Bergamo, where he founded another orphanage, and also by means of his earnestness, touched the hearts of, and converted a number of unhappy, sinful women. He was joined by others, zealous for the glory of God and the poor, and with the consent of the bishop of Bergamo, they spread through the villages, preaching to the people, and instructing the children. S. J erome Emiliani saw that all the institutions he had founded, and which were worked by men who had placed themselves under his orders, needed some central house, the head-quarters of the society. He pitched on Somasque, between Milan and Bergamo, and founded there a central house. On all who had joined him he imposed the rule of the regular canons of S. Augustine. To the care of orphans, S. Jerome [translator of the Bible into Latin (d. 420)] speedily added the education of Ju'y ao.] S. Jerome Emiliani \ young ecclesiastics. He saw the need there was that those who were destined for the priesthood should receive a religious training. Hitherto this had not been regularly carried out, and the result was, that many of the priests of Upper Italy were deficient in true piety, and some even gave great scandal by their disorderly lives. It was an evil which the Council of Trent sought to remedy by ordering the establishment of diocesan seminaries, but which was never seriously taken in hand till S. Vincent of Paul founded his order of Lazarists in France. S. Jerome died at Somasque, of pestilence, which he caught in nursing the sick. He died on February 8th, 1537, at the age of fifty-six.