St Jerome Emiliani

St Jerome came from a rich and important family. Growing up, he did not care about God. He relied on his own strength and ended up becoming a soldier. He was taken prisoner and chained in a dungeon where he had a lot of time to think about his life. He realized that not only was he chained up in the dungeon, he was chained up in the life he was leading without God. He began praying that Mary, Jesus' mother, would help him to be released not only from the dungeon, but also from the things that were keeping him away from God. By a miracle, he was able to escape from the dungeon. He went straight to a nearby church and hung his prison chains at the foot of a statue of Mary and gave his life to her Son Jesus. When he returned home he studied to become a priest and he began to help homeless and orphaned children. He used his money to rent a home to house, feed, cloth, and educate many children. He believed it was so important that all these children learn about Jesus and about the Catholic faith. He built many orphanages and founded the religious congregation of the Company of the Servants of the Poor.