He was a Christian, but the Gospel had not interested him that much. In that situation he made a decision: "If I get out of this hell alive, my life will change direction!".

On the night of 27 September he managed to escape from captivity and took refuge in Treviso in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he promised the Madonna to help others live better.

With the victory of Venice he returned to the castle of Castelnuovo but which he had to leave following the death of his two brothers: Luca first and Marco later. Girolamo moved to Venice to manage the family assets and take care of his six grandchildren. Here he matured to dedicate himself totally to the poor, frequenting the two hospitals in Venice, the Incurabili and the Bersaglio, where he came across orphaned and abandoned boys. He welcomed them into a house called San Basilio where he undertook not only to feed them but to give them a religious education and teach them a trade.

Bishop Carafa – the future Pope Paul IV – who supported Gaetano da Thiene in Venice invited him to become a Teatino, an invitation he declined and continued to live at San Basilio with his orphans.

Three saints were in Venice at that time: Gaetano da Thiene, Ignatius of Loyola and Girolamo. Girolamo had opted for the poor... thus his work began in 1532. In 1534, in Somasca, a small village near Bergamo, he formulated the legal structure of his work. A lay consecration to God was unthinkable and the form of regular clerics was chosen and they took the name of "Somascan Fathers" from the town.

Girolamo died of the plague on 8 September 1537, while helping the sick of Somasca.