MIANI (Emiliani), Jerome, Saint. - Born in Venice in 1486 (not in 1481), died at Somasca on 8 February 1537. A nobleman, he began a career of arms at the time of the League of Cambrai; in 1511 he was castellan of Castelnuovo; taken prisoner by the imperial forces, he began in the solitude of prison his return to God; having escaped from captivity, in the years 1516-19 he returned to Castelnuovo as rector, and during this stay he deepened the motives of his change, meditating and studying, preparing his life for the hidden ways of Providence. In 1527, once the period of his regency had expired, he returned to Venice. He began his activity of mercy after the famine of 1528: he gave lodging to abandoned little ones and set them to work (carding wool, the craft of his family). In April 1531 he moved with his orphans to the hospital of the Incurabili.
In his spiritual formation, with guidance and counsel, G. B. Carafa had a very notable part, and generally the whole group of the Divino Amore (indeed it was precisely his companions of the Divino Amore who assisted him financially in his work of charity; moreover G. placed his personal revenues at the disposal of the orphans: but he did this until 1531, when he renounced his possessions in favor of his nephews). Characteristic of his work is not only the spiritual formation of the young, but also directing them in the choice of material work; the Saint's fundamental concept is the institution of the orphanage as an entity in its own right.
In 1532 he left Venice, called to Verona by Giberti: there he organized the Institute of orphans; then he was at Brescia, at Bergamo (where he established a place for converted women), at Como. In 1533 he formed the first nucleus of the future Order of the Regular Clerics Somaschi, and established the small town of Somasca (Bergamo) as the central seat of his group. In 1534 he established an orphanage in Milan, then the Opera delle convertite; he extended his activity to Pavia. The patent for the regular practice of his group dates from 1535.
G. is a typical and luminous example of a man of the Catholic reform, so rich in humility and asceticism, in trust in God and in men, and in serene Christian optimism: «it seemed that he held Paradise in his hand, so great was his assurance; he gave various exhortations to his own, and always with a face so cheerful and smiling that he enamored and inebriated with the love of Christ whoever looked upon him», thus the vicar general of Bergamo described him in 1537 (cf. G. Landini, op. cit. in bibl., p. 485); G.'s letters (unfortunately only 6 of them have survived) give a vivid profile of his personality: active, shrewd, an excellent administrator. And on the other hand his realism as a practical man, transfused and sublimated into the mystical expectation of Christ, is captured in the splendid portrait attributed to Leandro da Ponte (Museo Correr).
Benedict XIV beatified him in 1747; Clement XIII canonized him in 1767. His feast falls on 20 July.
Bibliography4 works
Massimo Petrocchi