Novena of Saint Jerome
By Fr. Giuseppe Oddone.
Translated by Fr. Remo Zanatta and Fr.Julian Gerosa
- 1511: Marvelous liberation from the imprisonment of Jerome Emiliani
The Congregation of the Somascan Fathers recently celebrated a jubilee year from September 27, 2011, the feast of Mary, Mother of the Orphans, to September 27,2012, to commemorate and relive the prodigious liberation from the imprisonment of St. Jerome Emiliani for the intervention of the Virgin, invoked under the title of “Madonna Grande” of Treviso, the Madonna of Miracles. The flight took place the night after September 27, 1511, and ended in the early hours of the morning of the 28th with the arrival in the city of Treviso, where Jerome visited the shrine of Mary. It is an event in which the Somascan Congregation, which in its organizational and operational phase began about twenty years later, has always seen its beginnings: the tenderness of Mary for orphans and abandoned infused in the heart of Jerome, the heavenly blessing on its charism and its mission.
4.1. Historical context
The episode of Jerome’s liberation, however, requires a brief historical framework. What happened at the Castle of Quero was a small event of that long, ruthless, horrendous war that the Republic of Venice, then at the height of its power, sustained against virtually all the powers of Europe from 1508 (League of Cambrai) to 1516 (Peace of Noyon). Although invaded in its territory, humiliated and blocked in its expansionist aims, Venice succeeded with a series of military operations, separate peace, diplomatic reversals of alliances to recover almost all of its territory of the mainland.
The military defeat of Venice took place on May 14, 1509, in Agnadello. Its army, after a first favorable moment, was surrounded and routed by the French army of Louis XII; and several thousand dead were left on the field. Soon, all the big cities and minor centers of the mainland, dissolved by the oath of loyalty to Venice, opened their doors to the enemy. Only Treviso and then Padua, regained in July 1509, remained faithful to the government of the republic and constituted the hard core of the Venetian resistance and the beginning of its recovery.
4.2. The Miani family involved in the war
The Venetian aristocracy, even if troubled and uncertain, nevertheless showed an extraordinary capacity for reaction and a strong patriotism: among these families of the nobility there is that of the Emiliani or Miani, where you breathed an atmosphere of love and exaltation for the Republic, even for a long family tradition, always committed, generation after generation, to serve the state.
The four brothers Miani, Luca, Carlo, Marco, Jerome, were involved in very risky military operations and lost a lot in patrimony, in health, in freedom. Luca, the eldest son, Captain of the castle of the strategic fortress of La Scala between Valsugana and Feltre, saw his position conquered by Germans and Spaniards on July 5, 1510, his garrison massacred. Luca was seriously injured in an arm, to the point of becoming invalid, and was captured. Despite an exchange of prisoners his family paid a large sum of money for his freedom. Precisely because of his exemplary heroism, Luca obtained from the Major Council “by grace” the command of the castle of another fort, that of Castelnuovo di Quero, along the Piave river on the road that descended from Feltre to Treviso, with the commitment to be replaced by one of the brothers. It was Jerome, then twenty-five, who took his place. He went to Quero in the spring of 1511, structurally strengthened the fortification and reached an agreement with the local military leaders for the garrison of the soldiers. The events were pressing: the French general La Palisse, trying to avoid that the emperor Maximilian would make excuses to come down to the siege of Treviso, sent the Greek-Albanian mercenary captain Mercurio Bua with three thousand infantrymen and two hundred horses to occupy the castle and free the road along the Piave. The castle, surrounded from the South from which the attack was coming, and then from the north, abandoned by the military officers who had to defend it, was soon conquered, despite the heroism of Jerome and the fifty defenders. All were killed except for the Captain of the castle Jerome Miani and two other officers of Belluno. They were put in chains waiting for ransom.
4.3. The imprisonment and escape of Girolamo Miani
For Jerome Miani it began a very hard period of imprisonment, prevented from any possibility of escape by handcuffs, shackles at the feet, a heavy marble ball fixed to the neck by a chain; always among enemy soldiers, first in the castle of Quero, then following the movements of Mercury Bua south to Montebelluna, Nervesa, Breda di Maserada. In the night between the 27 and 28 of September, while the whole camp was in turmoil, for a new transfer of soldiers, Jerome Miani managed to escape “from the hands of Mercury Bua”. He reached Treviso after a dangerous and uninterrupted night trip. He returned “alone”, finally free, reanimated in morale, with a series of information on the movements and intentions of the German and French enemy, who planned to besiege Treviso.
4.4. The civil documentation of the escape
Both the fall of Castelnuovo di Quero, but above all the escape of Girolamo Miani from prison are clearly documented by the official diarist of Venice, Marin Sanudo, who on three occasions points out that on September 28th morning Jerome Miani, the former Captain of the castle of Quero, a prisoner in the field, escaped from the hands of enemies and Mercurio Bua. He heard in the tent from the enemy leader the intention of the French and Germans to attack Treviso. In fact, the siege began shortly in the early days of October. But after a week the French and Germans abandoned the enterprise both for the effective and determined defense of the Venetians (among them there was also Jerome, who remained in the city) and their artillery, and for disagreement and distrust between the French and German leaders.
4.5. Religious documentation of liberation
Next to this sure secular source, there is another religious source, the fourth book of miracles of the Madonna Grande of Treviso, a beautiful sixteenth-century code, which describes the event from a religious perspective. The chronicler takes up, even with some amplification and inaccuracy on the data, what Jerome himself told. It is worth reading the original miracle sixty-one of the code.
“…How a Venetian patrician was freed. 1511. Finding himself Sir Girolamo Miani, gentleman from Venice, Captain of ‘Castelnovo de Friulo’ with 300 infantrymen, was surrounded by a large army of the Caesarean army; not wanting to surrender, after many battles, the castle was taken and all the men cut in pieces, the captain was placed in shackles in a bottom of the tower. His life was reduced to bread and water, being all afflicted and sad for the bad company and torments that were given. Having heard of this Madonna of Treviso, with humble heart to Mary he entrusted his life, promising to visit this miraculous place of his, coming barefoot, in simple clothes, and to have masses celebrated. A woman dressed in white appeared there (immediately), having certain keys in her hand and said: “take these keys, open the chains and the doors of the tower, and run away”. However, finding himself in the middle of the enemy camp and not knowing the way to Treviso, feeling afraid and distressed, Jerome begged the Madonna of Treviso to give him help to escape from his enemies and to lead him safely to Treviso. “Et statim” (immediately) Our Lady took him by hand and brought him through the enemy army and no one saw anything. And She brought him to the road for Treviso and, as soon as Jerome could see the walls of the city, She disappeared. And he himself recounted this wonderful miracle”.
Unlike Marin Sanudo, where the point of observation was that of the diarist of the republic, filtered by the news of his informers, to document facts of the war and moves of the enemy, here the story unfolds from the inner perspective of Jerome Miani. It is the supernatural experience of the encounter with Mary, after so many events that acquire, one after the other, a providential and salvific value: his civil and military mission as defender of Castelnuovo di Quero, the encirclement of enemies, the fierce resistance, the defeat and massacre of the garrison, the imprisonment and the physical loss of freedom of movement, hunger, depression to the limits of despair for the cruelty of the prisoners and the torments suffered. Then the irruption of grace: the memory of Our Lady of the Miracles of Treviso, of which she had heard of, the opening of the heart in humility, the prayer to Mary, the vow to escape this anguished grip of imprisonment and of the physical and moral prostration. He comes and visits the shrine of miracles on foot, with a prisoner’s shirt, have masses celebrated. The saving event was triggered: Mary appeared to him for the first time in the light, dressed in white, she handed him the keys of the shackles and the tower, and gave him a precise order: run away! Jerome finds himself free in the night, in the middle of the enemy camp and does not know the way to Treviso. Another moment of panic followed, very strong, for the fear of not coming out alive; the prayer gushed out again and a second apparition of Mary followed, with the tactile sensation of being taken by the hand, of being guided by Her among the enemy ranks, without being noticed and recognized, up to the street of Treviso, indeed up to the view of the city walls, now in a safe zone.
The apparition of Mary to Jerome was discussed and examined in the various canonical processes for the beatification of Miani and recognized as authentic. Really a wonderful miracle, concrete and real, but also full of religious symbols for the transition from chains to freedom, from despair to trust, from sin to grace, from the uncertainty of the way to the achievement of the goal, all through the maternal intercession of Mary.
4.6. The fulfilment of the vote and the votive shackles
Jerome was faithful to his promise. He entered Treviso and found that the shrine, which was very close to the city walls, had been partially destroyed to create a free space for the maneuvers of defensive soldiers. Only the nave of the Church, and in particular the chapel of the Madonna Grande, had been saved by the precise will of the citizens and of the city’s Podesta’, despite the opposition of the military leaders. In any case, it was impossible then a public act of worship. When, after the peace of Noyon in 1516, the shrine was restored and reopened, Jerome returned to fulfill his vow in front of all. It is probable, as can be seen from similar cases told in the Book of Miracles, that he presented himself in the church in the guise of a prisoner with the shackles on his hands and feet, the marble ball hanging from his neck and the key to the instruments of imprisonment. It is certain that he laid them as an ex voto in front of the icon of Mary. He himself told the Father in charge of the documentation of what had happened to him and commissioned a votive tablet with an attached text that would visually illustrate the prodigy. Unfortunately, the key and the third book of miracles, which contained the first draft of the miracle, were destroyed in the fire of 1528. In 1531 some miracles that were part of the previous book were rewritten in the fourth book between 1508 and 1515: there was the same prior Father of the time, who had heard the story of the miracle of Jerome. Even the votive tablet was worn over time, but fortunately the explanatory text was saved, transcribed at the beginning of the sixteenth century during a canonical process on the sanctity of Emiliani.
Today, on the altar of the “Madonna dei miracoli” in Treviso, there are the marble ball, the handcuffs, the shackles, and a chain of ten rings (others, granted as relics, were lost). An uninterrupted tradition and documentation since 1500 tells us that these are the authentic ones, offered by the Saint, which were and are the object of profound veneration, meditation, and consolation for many believers, pilgrims and religious.
4.7. The Marian spirituality of Saint Jerome Emiliani
Those who, like Jerome Miani, had the mystical gift of experiencing Mary, of seeing her face immersed in the light, of feeling taken and led by the hand, cannot help but remember an intense spiritual joy and the feeling of a loving and continuous presence of Mary in their lives. This apparition of the Virgin gave a profound acceleration to the journey of holiness of Jerome, who over the years passed from a varied and disoriented life to Christian piety and practice, to a profound conversion to Christ Crucified and to a severe asceticism, to works of charity up to the abandonment of his social status to wear the habit of the poor and serve the little ones, the abandoned, the marginalized.
Jerome developed and lived a convinced biblical-Marian spirituality, based on some evangelical expressions. The first is that of the Magnificat: “Great things have been done in me by the Almighty” (Lk. 1:49). Jerome says that God has done great things with the people of Israel, with Mary and with all the saints. Therefore, he will do great things in me and in you, if you are with Christ, militating with him in the field, strong in faith, hoping in God, firm in tribulations, willing to suffer for his love. The second Marian phrase, profoundly interiorized, is that of the wedding at Cana, spoken by Mary to her servants: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). And Jerome never tires of repeating to the servants of the poor, the company he founded, Mary’s phrase: do what the Lord shows you, what Christ inspires you. He gives you the grace to see and to do what is necessary for you to do at this moment. Finally, the third expression dear to the Saint is “Mary, full of grace” (Lk 1:28), the mother of all the graces to which we must constantly turn for the good of the Company and the Church and for personal holiness. Whoever prays with the Hail Mary also acquires the certain hope of carrying out his Christian life on this earth and then of meeting the Virgin in the glory of Paradise. This is a Marian spirituality that is always relevant in Jerome. He believed in the idea that we must fight on the battlefield, standing firm in faith and in the way of God, vigorously committing ourselves with “the grace to work” to reform ourselves, the civil society (with respect for the little and marginalized), and the Church herself so that she can return to the holiness of apostolic times, that is, the Church of Pentecost, close around the Virgin Mary.