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St. Cajetan

St. Cajetan

St. Cajetan

Feastday: August 7
Patron of workers; gamblers; job seekers; unemployed people; Albania; Italy; Malta; Argentina; Brazil; El Salvador; Guatemala
1480 - 1547

In 1523, the Church was in sad shape. People could not get the spiritual nourishment they needed from the large numbers of uneducated and even immoral priests who took their money but returned nothing. When good priests and laypeople turned to the hierarchy for help, they found leaders at best apathetic and indifferent to their concerns.

How should a good Catholic respond to this situation? We all known how Luther and others responded -- by splitting away from the Catholic Church when their pleas went unheard.

Cajetan took a different route. Just as concerned as Luther was about what he observed in the Church, he went to Rome in 1523 -- not to talk to the pope or the hierarchy but to consult with members of a confraternity called the Oratory of the Divine Love. When he had first come to Rome many years before, he had felt called to some unknown great work there. A few years later he returned to his hometown of Vicenza -- his great work seemingly unrealized. He had however studied for the priesthood and been ordained and helped re-establish a faded confraternity whose aims were promoting God's glory and the welfare of souls.

In the years he had been gone from Rome, he had founded another Oratory in his home town and Verona where he had promoted spiritual life and care for the poor and sick not only with words but with his heroic example. 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." But none of the horrors he saw in the hospitals of the incurables depressed him as much as the wickedness he saw everywhere he looked.

In his former confraternity, he found other clergy who felt the way he did. They didn't want to split off from the Church, they wanted to restore it. So they decided to form an order based on the lives of the apostles in the hopes that these lives would inspire them and others to live holy lives devoted to Jesus. In order to accomplish this they would focus on moral lives, sacred studies, preaching and pastoral care, helping the sick, and other solid foundations of pastoral life. This new order was known as Theatines Clerks Regular because it was an order of the regular clergy and because a bishop known as Theatensis was their first superior general (although Cajetan is considered the founder).

Not surprisingly, they didn't find thousands of formerly greedy and licentious priests flocking to their door. But Cajetan and the others persevered even in the face of open opposition from laity and clergy who didn't want to reform. It was his holy example that converted many as well as his preaching.

Worn out by the troubles he saw in his Church and his home, Cajetan fell ill. When doctors tried to get him to rest on a softer bed then the boards he slept on, Cajetan answered, "My savior died on a cross. Let me died on wood at least." He died on August 7, 1547.

In His Footsteps

Do you have concerns about the Church or about certain people in power in the Church? Have you ever thought of leaving the Church because of these concerns? What positive steps could you take instead of splitting from the Church to help promote holiness and love of God and others?

Prayer:

Saint Cajetan, when we see things that trouble us in our Church, help us to continue to love her. Guide us to the positive steps we need to take to work within the Church for renewal. Help us to be examples of holiness to all. Amen

Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.

 
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1 - 20 of 51 Comments

  1. Anne (Ireland)
    1 week ago

    Thank you saint cajetan for assisting me to secure employment. You helped me through a very difficult period in my life.

  2. Dodong Rep
    3 weeks ago

    Dear Holy St. Cajetan,

    I have been jobless for over a year now and have been continuosly looking for a job. I have been into a few job interviews but none have hired me. Oh most glorious St. Cajetan, I beg of your intercession to please pray fro me to our Lord Jesus Christ that He will grant me my petition to have a gainful and lawful employment to enable to support myself and family and share the blessings from His bounty. That I may be able to use the talents that our Lord has given me for the praise and glory of His name.
    This I pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

  3. A BELIEVER
    1 month ago

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH

    I HAVE GOT A GOOD JOB AFTER PRAYING THIS PRAYER AFTER BEING UNEMPLOYED FOR OVER A YEAR . I THANK THE LORD FOR HEARING MY PRAYERS AND THANK ST CAJETAN AND ST JOSEPH FOR INTERCEDING TO GOD ON MY BEHALF. I ALSO HAD THE GREAT BLESSINGS TO ATTEND FOR 4 INTERVIEWS ALL WHICH WERE FROM BIG COMPANIES. IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE OF GODS BLESSINGS AND GRACE THAT I COULD ATTEND ALL THESE INTERVIEWS FROM VERY TOP COMPANIES AND THAT I FINALLY GOT MY OFFER AND JOB THROUGH GOD.

    I REQUEST ALL THOSE SEEKING A JOB TO PRAY THIS PRAYER AND WAIT WITHOUT LOSING HOPE AND SURELY GOD WILL BLESS U.!!!!!

  4. Jerome Francis Peter
    1 month ago

    St. Cajetan,

    Please give my Wife and me the strength to find a new job. We have been unemployed for over 1 month. We have been struggling to find a job. I am waiting to hear back on a job interview. Please pray for me so that job comes through. We pray through you to Our Lord Jesus Christ for getting a job. Please ask Jesus to grant us with a best one. We need to get the job sooner, so that we don’t lose our work permit. Please pray on our behalf.

  5. Lourenco Ribeiro
    1 month ago

    Dear St. Cajetan, i am idle without job for 7 months now , my previous company is closed and since then i am idle. No employer observe me for any post because of my experience (15 yrs) and also because of my age (40 yrs). I pray through you to Our Lord Jesus Christ for getting a new good job. Please ask Jesus to grant me with a new best one or into any kind of good business. Thank you very much. Please please help.

    Lourenco Ribeiro

  6. luis
    1 month ago

    Dear St. Cajatan i have applied for a job now i am waiting for a background check please pray for me so i can be given a job offer with this company. I am engaged to be married and want to start my life and provide for my family thank you

  7. Laurie
    1 month ago

    Dear St. Cajetan, I ask that you help me to find a great job that i love and can excel in the position. Help me to continue to learn, grow as a christian and meet all of the expectations for myself and my future employer. In name of Jesus. Amen.

  8. Preetha
    1 month ago

    Dear St. Cajetan I kindly request your intersession for my husband to get a good job. Please pray for us to our Lord.
    Thank you! Praise the Lord! Halleluiah !

  9. Eileen Betts
    2 months ago

    Most glorious St. Cajetan I am most humbly grateful for your intercession. Today I accpeted a job. I continue to pray that I do my very best and meet mine and others expectations. Please allow me to do Gods work and help those in need. Prayers for those who continue their job quest may they continue to have hope and find success.

    With upmost gratitude,

    Eileen

  10. TN
    3 months ago

    Dear St. Cajetan,

    Pray for my husband Chris to have a successful interview on Monday here in AZ. My husband works in another state 2000mi away so he can provide for his family and commutes back and forth when he can to visit. I pray that the positions my husband is applying for here in the southeast valley of Arizona leads him to the best opportunity. I pray for your guidance and direction for him. Please help him and use his strengths to place him in the right hands at the right time. Chris is a hard worker and will appreciate any opportunity to work here in Arizona So that he can come back to his family and friends where he belongs. We miss him!

  11. David
    3 months ago

    Dear St. Cajetan, thank you for the revelation that revived my faith. Please pray for me to hear good news regarding my recent job interview. Please pray for my nation to believe in itself again, as you offered a path for the faithful to believe in the church again.
    Molto Grazie,
    David

  12. Ralph
    3 months ago

    Praise be to God in the name of Jesus for refering me to St. Cajetan and recieving a good job.
    Please continue to pray for my growth. Hallelujah!

  13. Claudia
    3 months ago

    Thank you St. Cajetan. I prayed the novena for 9 days and a week later got a call about a job. I will be starting on Monday. It is a temporary job for 3 months but it's more than I've had in 3 years. Thank you Saint Cajetan. Please continue to help the unemployed.

  14. Connie
    4 months ago

    Dear St. Cajetan,
    Thank you for my Son's new job! It is just what he has always wanted and I am so
    grateful to you. I said your novena for 9 days and prayed and ask you to ask our
    Lord to bless him with a job. He has worked so hard and we thank you for such a
    blessing.

  15. Colette Jodi
    4 months ago

    St. Cajetan please help me find the job I am seeking. Amen

  16. Cheryl
    4 months ago

    Glorious Saint Cajetan, please ask God to forgive me for at one time I left the Church, then returned with the forgivenedd of Our Lord jesus Christ. Please help me to find good paying part-time credit collector jobs near home and/or legitimate and paying writing-job-from home so that I can pay for my needs. Please help me to be confident in myself when I go to interviews and know what to say at them. Please help me in the meantime, as the patron saint of gamblers, to win a little in the Florida Lottery, so as to not be a millionaire, but only so that I can sustain a decent living and go on winter pilgrimages until the job market has improved. I know that asking for money is probably a mortal sin, please forgive me as I am trying to survive as an ungrateful servant in these trying times. Amen.

  17. Madeleine Baier
    5 months ago

    Dear St. Cajetan, I am 60 years old, going through a divorce and putting my life back together. Please help me find adequate employment, Amen

  18. Sarah
    6 months ago


    Dear St. Cajetan

    I humbly ask that you help my son Jonson find work. He needs a job to support his wife and son. I ask this in Jesus name and I thank you for your help.

  19. TN
    6 months ago

    St. Cajetan,

    I pray to the Almighty Father through you the saint of job seekers like me that you help me acquire a UN job before the end of this year. In return I will make you known to those who have not heard about you. Thank you

  20. Franz MB
    7 months ago

    Dear St Cajetan, please forgive us and my family of our sins. Thank you so much for your daily blessings as I know that I’m not worthy but you continue to bless me and family each day. I come to ask St. Cajetan to intercede to you God our father to help me find a good abroad job with benefits that will allow me to continue to provide for my family and pay my bills, loans and debts. I ask you God that you help me to follow the path that you set before me with open eyes and an open heart and patients. Please give those employers that are looking for workers to have open eyes and open heart to see that I am a good worker and would be a benefit to their company. Please give all the banks dismissal of all my cases so that I could go back abroad for work I trust in you Lord Jesus Christ my savior to keep my family and I in the palm of your hands. Amen


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