Page:The Life Of Saint Gaetan Founder Of The Order Of Theatins.pdf/14

10 their priests, it is surely one of the greatest works to found and cement such orders of clergy as shall raise the tone and character of the priesthood, and this was one of the principal labours of St. Gaetan, as it was of St. Charles Borromeo, and others. He was born at Vincenza, in the Venetian territory, in the year 1480.

His father was Gaspar, Count of Thiene, and his mother, Mary Porta, was also of one of the noblest families in Lombardy: but both were as remarkable for their piety as for their high rank. From the moment of his birth, the young Gaetan was offered by his holy mother to the Blessed Virgin, to whom she had the greatest devotion; and our Lady accepted her offering and took the little child under her special protection, so that from his very infancy he seemed to be endowed with special grace, and was beyond his years both in goodness and knowledge. He had been named Gaetan at his baptism out of respect to the memory of a great uncle, who bore that name, a canon of Padua, and one of the most famous theological professors of his day.

It is a trite observation that most great men owe their noblest qualities to the influence of their mothers.