In 1532, the priests Alessandro Besuzio and Agostino Bariso joined the charitable labors of Jerome Emiliani, a converted former soldier from Venice.

This handful of laymen and priests adopted an organized structure for the movement of religious and social reform started by Jerome in 1529 in Venice.

[4] Devoted to the guardian angels, Emiliani entrusted the congregation to the protection of the Virgin, the Holy Spirit and the Archangel Raphael.

In 1568 the community was constituted a religious order, according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with solemn vows, by Pius V with the name of Somascan Regular Clerics.

According to Vidimus Dominum the spirituality of St. Jerome consists in the desire to bring the Church "to the state of holiness" of the early Christian communities, serving Christ especially in poor, abandoned children and, showing them the tender "fatherhood and motherhood" of God.

[6] The Order extended its charitable ministries beyond the care of orphans by supporting and staffing seminaries (just then mandated by the Council of Trent), by educating youth, and by ministering to people in parishes.