The Marian spirituality of Saint Jerome Emiliani
by Father Giuseppe Oddone, CRS
Those who, like Girolamo 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). Girolamo 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 Girolamo. 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.