Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene, was an Italian Catholic priest and religious reformer, who helped found the.
Background
Saint Cajetan was born in October 1480, the son of Gaspar, lord of Thiene, and Mary Porta, persons of the first rank among the nobility of the territory of Vicenza, in Lombardy. His father died when he was two years of age. Quiet and retiring by nature, he was predisposed to piety by his mother.
Education
Cajetan studied law in Padua, receiving his degree as doctor utriusque juris (ie, in civil and canon law) at age 24.
Career
In 1506 he worked as a diplomat for Pope Julius II, with whom he helped reconcile the Republic of Venice. But he was not ordained a priest until the year 1516. With the death of Pope Julius II in 1513.
Cajetan withdrew from the papal court.
Recalled to Vicenza by the death of his mother, he founded in 1522 a hospital for incurables there. By 1523 he had established a hospital in Venice, as well.
His interests were as much or more devoted to spiritual healing than the physical kind, and he joined a confraternity in Rome called the "Oratory of Divine Love". He intended to form a group that would combine the spirit of monasticism with the exercises of the active ministry.
A new congregation was canonically erected by Pope Clement VII in the year 1524.
There Cajetan met Jerome Emiliani, whom he assisted in the establishment of his Congregation of Clerks Regular. In 1533 he founded a house in Naples. The year 1540 found him in Venice again and from there he extended his work to Verona.
He founded a bank to help the poor and offer an alternative to usurers (loan sharks).
lieutenant later became the Bank of Naples. Cajetan died in Naples on August 7, 1547.
His remains are in the church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples. Outside the church is Piazza San Gaetano, with a statue.
He was beatified on October 8, 1629, by Pope Urban VIII. On April 12, 1671, Cajetan was canonized together with Rose of Lima, Luis Beltrán, Francis Borgia and Felipe Benicio.
Saint Cajetan"s feast day is celebrated on August 7. Patronage
He is known as the patron saint of Argentina, the unemployed, gamblers, document controllers, and good fortune.