a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

Today, August 7, we celebrate the feast of Saint Cajetan of Thiene (also known as Saint Gaetano, 1480-1547), zealous reformer of the clergy, founder of the Theatine Order, and patron saint of the unemployed. As many of the prayer requests that I receive involve prayers for those who are unemployed or seeking work, I will pray this novena to Saint Cajetan beginning today, for the next nine days—for all those who are seeking employment, both requested on this blog and maintained in the quiet of their hearts.



For those of you who wish to join me in this novena to Saint Cajetan, each day of the novena begins with the prayer for that day, followed by saying the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, and Doxology (Glory Be) three times each. The intercession, “Saint Cajetan, pray for us” is prayed three times, followed by the daily prayer (below).


Saint Cajetan, pray for us. Intercede for us with Jesus Our Lord!



Daily Prayer (said each day)

O glorious St. Cajetan, you studied to be a lawyer, but when you felt that the Lord was calling you to his service, you abandoned everything and became a priest. You excelled in virtues, shunning all material rewards for your labor, helping the many unemployed people of your time. You provided loans without interest and you attracted a lot of benefactors who donated to your resources so that you could go on with your activities. Look on us with mercy. We wish to find employment that could help us and our families live with dignity. Listen to our petitions, dear saint; you who could easily give up the food on your table for the needy, bring our petitions to Jesus (here make your request). Amen.



First Day

You were a model of virtue among the priests of your time, O St. Cajetan. You sought not to receive payments from your ministry, and you taught people how to pray the rosary and develop devotions to saints. You were truly a spiritual shepherd, and your concern was always focused on the salvation of souls. But despite this, you were also aware that with hungry stomachs, the faithful would have difficulty in understanding God’s Word. You embarked to help them, not just by giving them bread but helping them gain their living by work. Look on us with pity, O glorious saint. We have many unemployed people in our midst and their families go hungry. We ask you to guide the fathers and mothers who are looking for work. Amen.

Second Day

Despite your busy schedule, dear saint, you spent eight hours a day in prayer. Your happiness consists in being united with Jesus, to savor his presence in the Eucharist. Guide us to be like you by giving priority to prayer in our life. Enable us to savor Jesus’ presence and help us become contemplatives like you. Inspire us to understand that prayer is not just asking Jesus for our needs, but being with him, delighting in his presence. We ask you, dear saint, to lead us in this direction that we may learn to delight in Jesus’ presence. Amen.


Third Day

Since your death, dear St. Cajetan, the unemployed people of the world had sought your intercession. Work is the key to a happy life. Look with pity on the millions of people in our country who wake up each morning without certainty of finding food because they don’t have work. These people become victims of desperation and some even resort to crimes to survive. Help our government leaders formulate policies that will bring about employment. You who established a bank for the needy inspire our leaders to extend loans for the poor so that they may provide for the needs of their families. Amen.


Fourth day



Fifth day

O glorious St. Cajetan, you spent long hours helping the sick and worked yourself to exhaustion in helping victims of plagues which were frequent in your time. You cared for the sick not just to heal them, but to guide them to a happy death. You wanted their souls, not their bodies. Help us to understand that we have to prepare ourselves to a happy death. May we likewise see that the most terrible sickness is our sinfulness, and we always have to examine ourselves for the sins we commit daily. Inspire us to have repentant hearts that we may always be prepared to meet the Lord. Amen.



Seventh Day

O glorious St. Cajetan, your unceasing fasting and penance help people understand that God must be loved above all things and above all persons. You sacrificed anything or anyone that could block you from loving God with your whole soul, mind, heart and body. By eating little, you showed to others that man does not live on bread alone. You renewed the faith of many people, touched their hearts, and helped much in the reformation of the Church. Inspire us to fast and do penance for our sins. Instill on us the spirit of sacrifice that we, too, may love God intensely as you did. Amen.

Eighth Day


Ninth day

O glorious St. Cajetan, you received many special blessings from Jesus, visions and mystical experiences because of your union with him. While contemplating the mystery of incarnation, Mary appeared to you and put on your lap the baby Jesus. You held on to the baby and made your heart his dwelling place. Jesus truly loved you and his Mother trusted you. Listen then to our petitions on this last day of our novena and bring them to Jesus. Prove to us that now in heaven you are closer to Jesus and he listens to you. Amen.

Today, August 7, we celebrate the feast of Saint Cajetan of Thiene (also known as Saint Gaetano, 1480-1547), zealous reformer of the clergy, founder of the Theatine Order, and patron saint of the unemployed. Throughout his life, Saint Cajetan demonstrated concern and care for those less fortunate than himself, speaking out against exploitation of workers, poor wages, and unhealthy working conditions. Such zeal did he show for the salvation of his fellowmen that he was surnamed the "huntsman for souls." Deeply devoted to Our Blessed Mother, Saint Cajetan was graced by numerous visions of Mary, including at the hour of his death.
Born in Vincenza Italy, of pious and noble parents, Cajetan was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin at birth. From childhood, he was recognized as a saint, given his obedience, temperance, and charity. A distinguished student, he served as a model for his peers in academic achievement and morality, achieving a law degree in Padua. Even as a university student, however, all he wished was to enter the priesthood, although as his diary entries suggest, he did not consider himself worthy:
“I know too well, o Lord, that I am not worthy to be admitted among the consortium of these earthly angels [his way of viewing the priesthood], I wish even so to merit it. You can see my burning desire to bind myself to you forever with priestly promises. Why therefore do you not console me, my dearest goodness? Anyway, my desire is not to want my way but your way. Accept at least these my heart’s desires which in front of you become so real even when they cannot become a reality for me.”

Following his graduation as an attorney, he left that city to seek out humble obscurity in Rome. However, once arriving, he was “invited” by Pope Julius II to accept the position of apostolic protonotary, a high office. Reluctantly, Cajetan accepted the offer, and subsequently joined the Confraternity of Divine Love. Working with his fellow members, Cajetan introduced the concept of frequent Communion, and elsewhere through their influence.

Pope Julius II saw to Cajetan’s ordination, after which he offered many fervent Masses. He was reported to spend at least eight hours each day in solitary prayer. On Christmas Eve at the Church of Saint Mary Major he was greeted with his first vision of Our Blessed mother. When he entered the church he saw the Mary, radiant with light, who came to him and placed Her divine Infant in his arms. These are the words he used to describe his vision: “....I boldly found myself, at the time of the Holy Nativity, in this crib; to give me courage I had with me Saint Jerome my father, who had the crib so close to his heart and whose remains were placed at the entrance of the same crib; and with a little bit of encouragement from the old man (St. Joseph), from the hands of the Virgin Mary, I took into my arms that little Baby: the Eternal Word Who became flesh. My heart was really hard, you must believe me, because if it were not as hard as a diamond, it was sure to liquefy at that moment... patience...” Later in his life, Saint Cajetan would introduce the Forty Hours’ Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as an antidote to the heresy of Calvin.

On the death of Pope Julius II, as well as the death of his mother, Cajetan returned to Vincenza. There he sought out the poorest and sick, transporting them to the Hospital of the Incurables, and joining the Confraternity of Divine Love with that of the Confraternity of Saint Jerome whose members were drawn from the lowest classes. His noble family was appalled by his association with the lower class, but Cajetan paid them no heed, spending his fortune in building hospitals and nursing the plague-stricken. He told his brothers, "In this oratory we try to serve God by worship; in our hospital we may say that we actually find him."

Out of obedience to his spiritual director, Saint Cajetan traveled to Venice, enacting immediate reform in the lives of the clergy there. He realized that to reform the Church, a obedient and zealous clergy was the manner in which to inspire the congregation. Along with Paul Caraffa, then Bishop of Theata in the kingdom of Naples (who later would become Pope Paul IV), and two other fervent Christians, he instituted the first community of Regular Clarks, known as Theatines. They devoted themselves to preaching, the administration of the Sacraments, and the careful performance of the Church's rites and ceremonies. Members of the Order lived apostolic lives, looking with disdain upon all earthly belongings, receiving no income, and accepting no salaries from the faithful. Only from that which was freely offered were they allowed to retain the means of livelihood. Thus they were to rely unreservedly upon Divine Providence.

The patron saint of the unemployed, Saint Cajetan further demonstrated considerable care for the livelihood of his parishioners. Not only did he work for wage reform, he founded a bank to help the poor and offer an alternative to usurers (loan sharks). This bank later became the Bank of Naples. Today also known as the patron saint of gamblers, he is remembered for a gentle game he played with parishioners in which he would bet prayers, rosaries or devotional candles on whether he would perform some service for them. Of course, he always performed the service, and the parishioners always had to “pay” by saying the prayers they had bet against him.

Having returned to Rome, Cajetan was captured and scourged by the invading Germans, who were hoping to discover where he had hidden his “riches.” Of course, Saint Cajetan had long since spent all that he had in service to the poor and struggling. Once let out of prison, he never recovered from the vicious torture. Having returned home, his doctors tried to get him to rest on a softer bed then the boards he slept on, but Cajetan answered: "My savior died on a cross. Let me die on wood at least." It was then, when St. Cajetan was on his death-bed, that he again beheld the Blessed Virgin, surrounded by ministering seraphim. In profound veneration, he said, "Lady, bless me!”

Mary replied, "Cajetan, receive the blessing of my Son, and know that I am here as a reward for the sincerity of your love, and to lead you to paradise." She then exhorted him to patience in fighting an evil spirit who troubled him, and gave orders to the choirs of angels to escort his soul in triumph to heaven. Then, turning her countenance full of majesty and sweetness upon him, she said, "Cajetan, my Son calls thee. Let us go in peace." Saint Cajetan died peacefully, surrounded by the choirs of heaven. His relics are interred in the church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples, outside of which is located the Piazza San Gaetano, with a statue of the saint.

Saint Cajetan sought first and foremost the will of the Lord in his life. Dedicated not only to Church reform, but to also reform of the evils of the world he encountered on a daily basis, this humble saint gave all that he had to service of those around him. He worked with the poorest of the poor, the sickest of the sick, the most undesirable souls he could find—nursing them physically back to help, assisting with their finances, and saving and converting their souls. Saint Cajetan is a model of obedience, service, and Christian charity—three virtues we can all ascribe to. We pray for the intercession of saint Cajetan, that we, too, may turn our gaze from our own lives to those around us in greater need.

Selected Quotations of Saint Cajetan:
“I am a sinner and do not think much of myself; I have recourse to the greatest servants of the Lord, that they may pray for you to the blessed Christ and his Mother. But do not forget that all the saints cannot endear you to Christ as much as you can yourself. It is entirely up to you. If you want Christ to love you and help you, you must love Him and always make an effort to please Him. Do not waver in your purpose, because even if all the saints and every single creature should abandon you, He will always be near you, whatever your needs.”
“There is no one, O Most Holy Mary, who can know God except through thee; no one who can be saved or redeemed but through thee, O Mother of God; no one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one who obtains mercy but through thee, O Filled-With-All-Grace!”


Prayer of Saint Cajetan


Look down, O Lord, from Your sanctuary, from Your dwelling in heaven on high, and behold this sacred Victim which our great High Priest, Your Holy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, offers up to You for the sins of His brethren and be appeased despite the multitude of our sins. Behold, the voice of the Blood of Jesus, our Brother, cries to You from the cross. Listen, O Lord. Be appeased, O Lord. Hearken and do not delay for Your own sake, O my God; for Your Name is invoked upon this city and upon Your people and deal with us according to Your mercy. Amen.




Lord,
You helped Saint Cajetan
to imitate the apostolic way of life.
By his example and prayers
may we trust in You always
and be faithful in seeking Your kingdom.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.