Roman Catholics will observe on Wednesday, Feb. 8, the Feast of Saint Jerome (San Geronimo or Gerolamo) Emiliani, the revered patron saint of orphans and abandoned children.
Special masses in his honor will be offered at the Saint Jerome Emiliani and Santa Susana Parish in Muntinlupa City. The sixth novena mass (Feb. 3 to 11) will be offered.
Rev. Fr. Melchor H. Umandal, Provincial Superior of the Somascan Fathers-Southeast Asia Province, will celebrate a high mass on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.
The 40th parish fiesta will be commemorated on Sunday, Feb. 12 with a solemn high mass at 9 a.m. to be presided over by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David.
The grand fiesta procession will be held on Friday, Feb. 10.
Commemorative masses in honor of the revered Italian saint will also be held in Dinalupihan, Bataan.
Born in the year 1481 in Venice, Italy, St. Jerome dedicated his whole life to the service of the poor, the sick, and abandoned children. Ordained priest in 1518, he founded in 1532 the Congregation of Clerks Regular of Somascha (Somaschan Fathers), a charitable congregation of clerics whose main apostolate was the care of orphans, education of the youth, and the formation of young priests.
He died in 1537 and was canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767. In 1928, Pope Pius XI declared St. Jerome the patron saint of orphans and abandoned children.