His story
He was born at Vicenza in 1480, studied law at Padua and served at the papal court before he became a priest in 1516. After his mother died he founded a hospital at Vicenza for people with incurable illnesses. With Gian Pietro Carafa, later Pope Paul IV, he founded the Theatines in 1524, an order of priests who lived as the apostles had, trusting God to provide for them. He spent his last years in Naples, where he died in 1547.
“St. Cajetan”, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908; The Roman Martyrology, 1916, 7 August
His feast day
7 August: His feast in the Catholic Church.
Why people ask St Cajetan
Finding a job
In Argentina above all, people ask San Cayetano for “bread and work”. On his feast, 7 August, the queue at his shrine in Liniers, Buenos Aires, stretches as far as the nearby football stadium.
Pope Francis, letter to the Argentine bishops on San Cayetano, 1 August 2016
Where it comes from
Who wrote it
No one knows who wrote it. It was printed in an Italian novena in Naples in 1837, and Spanish speakers pray a freer version of it that begins “¡Oh glorioso San Cayetano!”.
Novena in onore del glorioso S. Gaetano Tiene (Naples, 1837), p. 11
The novena for work
The novena people pray to St Cajetan when they look for work opens with this prayer, in another English: “Glorious Saint Cajetan, acclaimed by all people to be the father of providence”.
In Italian
O Gran Santo, che ogni nazione vi acclama Padre della Provvidenza,perchè con aperti miracoli soccorretechi v’invoca con fiducia ne’ suoi bisogni;
vi preghiamo ad ottener da Dioopportuno soccorso alle nostre angustie,che sia caparra dell’eterna Beatitudine.
From Novena in onore del glorioso S. Gaetano Tiene (Naples, 1837), p. 11, the seventh day, third prayer.
