ALESSANDRO SAULI, saint. — Bishop of Aleria, born in Milan of a noble Genoese family on 15 February 1534, died at Calosso (Asti) on 11 October 1592. After completing his humanistic studies at Pavia, he returned to Milan at the age of seventeen, where, having been appointed page to the Emperor Charles V, he saw a comfortable and brilliant career opening before him; but he wished to renounce the allurements of the world and asked to be accepted into the young Congregation of the Clerics Regular of S. Paolo (Barnabites). His request was subjected to a severe test: dressed as a page, he had to carry a large cross on his shoulders through the principal streets of Milan and not return without having demonstrated his love for religious life. A. obeyed — it was the feast of Pentecost in 1551 — and in the Piazza dei Mercanti, near the Duomo, he made a mountebank come down from the platform, erected the cross there, and began a sermon on the service that men must render to
God. He was immediately received into the Congregation and sent to complete his studies at the Barnabite college in Pavia, which he enlarged and endowed with a rich library at his own expense. Ordained a priest (1556), he taught theology and philosophy at the University and was soon chosen by the bishop, Ippolito Rossi, as his theologian. But he distinguished himself there even more for the art and, above all, the effectiveness of his preaching. S. Carlo Borromeo, who had invited him to preach in Milan, wanted him as his confessor and counsellor. At Pavia, he organized and directed, almost anticipating the modern Catholic university associations, an Academy composed of young men attending the University. Elected superior general of his institute at only thirty-three years of age, in 1567, he not only watched over the preservation of the rule’s observance intact, but took special care over the formation of the young recruits, so that they might grow worthy, both in doctrine and in holiness, of the ministries to which they would be called. Because of his outstanding gifts, St. Pius V appointed him, despite his protests, bishop of Aleria in Corsica, and he was consecrated by S. Carlo in 1570.
The mission entrusted to him was certainly arduous. The conditions of the island were dreadful: for seventy years it had not seen a bishop; the population, diminished and barbarized, lived on herbs and acorns; there were about a thousand homicides a year; the churches served as sheepfolds, and the priests were ignorant even of the rites of the Mass. In the episcopal city of Aleria he found not two habitable rooms; of the cathedral only the walls remained. Having established himself at Corte, he began his visitation of the diocese, attending first of all to the priests; he gathered them in synods, and at the third promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent. Meanwhile he founded his seminary and established his residence at Cervione. In addition to his episcopal functions, he devoted himself to every ministry of a simple priest: catechizing the people, instructing his clerics, visiting the sick, and reconciling hatreds and disputes among families.
After twenty years of unheard-of toil, having refused the sees of Tortona and Genoa, he had to accept that of Pavia (1591); but he died there a year later, during a pastoral visitation, at Calosso di Asti. His body is venerated in the cathedral of Pavia. He was beatified by Benedict XIV (1742) and canonized by Pius X in 1904. His feast is celebrated on 11 October.
Among his works in print, his letters and episcopal constitutions deserve note; in addition: Confessionale Fr. Hier. Savonarolae, Pavia 1567 (13 editions through 1605); Istruttione compendiosa, Genoa 1571 (for the service of those to be ordained and of confessors); Dottrina del Catechismo Romano ridotto a nuovo modo più semplice e facile, Pavia 1581; De officiis et moribus Episcopi, Commentariorum, Rome 1866.