8 February 2022 - Tuesday of the 5th week in Ordinary Time - St Jerome Emiliani - Psalm 84

       It amazes me to see the different patron saints that we have in the Catholic Church.  St Fiacre, a 7th century hermit who lived in France, is the patron saint of gardeners, herbalists, and Parisian taxi cab drivers. St Abigail, an abbess and woman of great charity from Ireland in the 6th century, is the patron saint of honey bees and bee keepers. That brings us to the saint we celebrate today, St Jerome Emiliani, born in Italy in the late 15th century.  As a young man, he was a military commander in Venice in charge of a large fortress and a large number of soldiers.  However, the fortress was captured by their enemies, putting Jerome in chains in a prison.  However, at the time, God had not been a part of his life.  With his own personal strength and the strength of his soldiers and his weapons, God did not fit into his life and into his value system.  However, finding himself as a prisoner in a dungeon, he let go of his worldly values and found God. After his escape from prison, he studied for the priesthood.  Yet, soon after, Venice was hit with the plague and famine.  In the midst of the suffering that he saw, he had a special place in heart for the children and youth who were left abandoned and orphaned.  Even after he contracted the plague himself, he devoted his efforts to caring for the poor and the abandoned, establishing hospitals, orphanages, and a shelter for prostitutes. His group of priests became a religious order named the Clerks Regular of Somasca.  Jerome Emiliani died at the rather young age of 56 after contracting an illness from the sick patients under his care.  He was canonized in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.  He is the patron saint of orphans and abandoned children and youth.  

       One of the verses of psalm 84 states: “My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”  I can imagine St Jerome Emiliani crying out for the Lord, yearning for him in the midst of the suffering and emptiness he felt as a prisoner.  May we feel that same yearning for God.