One month late, he was able to escape, and he attributed his
escape to Mary’s intersession. He claimed a woman clothed in white appeared and
handed him the keys to unlock his chains and the door of the prison tower. He
even made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Treviso and left his
prisoner’s chains there.
He served the army for a few more years. In 1516, he returned to Venine to help
supervise his nephews and nieces, who had been orphaned. He also spent time
studying theology and doing works of charity. He began caring for the city’s
poor and sick, particularly orphans. He ran the hospital for incurables. He
also travelled around northern Italy encouraging other cities to build hospitals
and orphanages.
He found community in meetings with members of the Community
of Divine Love, a lay apostolate dedicated to the poor, the sick, and the union
of hearts. Some accounts say that Gerolamo was ordained, while others suggest
that he wasn’t. However, he begin to work with two priests, and together, they
began to plan a religious community based on Gerolamo’s charity, also probably
influenced by the Community of Divine Love.
In 1532 Gerolamo founded the Congregation of Regular Clerics in Somasca, a small town between Milan and Bergamo. The principal work of the community was care for orphans, poor, and sick. The members of the order became known as Somachi or Somascans.
In 1537, Gerolamo contracted the plague while assisting the inflicted
during an epidemic. He died on Feb. 8, 1537. He is the patron of orphaned and
abandoned children. His feast day is Feb. 8. The
