St. Cajetan was born in 1480 in Lombardy, of pious and noble parents. From childhood he was known as a saint and in later years as a “hunter of souls”. Even before St. Ignatius he undertook to establish a body of Clerks Regular following the apostolic life. Together with Pietro Carafa, afterwards Pope Paul IV, he took the austere vow of entrusting himself entirely to Divine Providence and living solely on any alms which might be voluntarily given by the faithful.

Christian Rome venerated him as one of her most distinguished citizens. He took a notable part in the reform of the Breviary under Clement VII. When celebrating the Mass in St. Mary Major at the crib of Our Lord, he merited the grace of holding the divine Infant in his arms. Worn out with toil and sickness he went to his reward in 1547.

(Source: The New Roman Missal, Rev. F. X. Lasance)