Optional Memorial
Saint Jerome Emiliani
- Feast day
- February 08
- Origin
- Italian
Patron of
- orphans and abandoned children
Life
Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537) was a Venetian soldier and nobleman who, after a conversion experience while imprisoned as a prisoner of war, devoted his life to caring for orphans, the sick, and the poor. He founded orphanages and hospitals and established the Somaschi Fathers. Pope Pius XI declared him patron of orphans and abandoned children in 1928.
The saint of the day, every day
Bosko shows you the saint the Church honors today, every day — their story, today's feast, and where they fall in your tradition's liturgical calendar, so a feast that matters to you never quietly slips past.