ALESSANDRO SAULI, Saint. — Bishop of Aleria, born in Milan to a noble Genoese family on 15 February 1534, died at Calosso (Asti) on 11 October 1592. After completing his humanistic studies in Pavia, he returned to Milan at the age of seventeen, where, having been appointed a page to Emperor Charles V, he found himself facing a comfortable and brilliant career; but he wished to renounce the allurements of the world and asked to be accepted into the young Congregation of the Clerics Regular of St Paul (Barnabites). His request was subjected to a severe trial: dressed as a page, he had to carry a large cross through the main streets of Milan and was not to return without having given proof of his love for the religious life. A. obeyed — it was the feast of Pentecost in 1551 — and in the Piazza dei Mercanti, near the Duomo, he made a tumbler descend from his platform, erected the cross there, and began to preach on the service that men must render to God.
Immediately admitted into the Congregation, he was 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 priest in 1556, he taught theology and philosophy at the university and was soon elected by Bishop Ippolito Rossi as his theologian. But he distinguished himself most by his art and, above all, by the efficacy of his preaching. St Charles Borromeo, who had invited him to preach in Milan, wished him to be his confessor and counsellor. In Pavia, he organized and directed, almost anticipating today’s Catholic university associations, an academy composed of young men attending the university.
Elected superior general of his institute at the age of only thirty-three in 1567, he not only ensured that the observance of the rule remained intact but took special care in the formation of the young recruits so that they might grow in doctrine and holiness for the ministries to which they would be called. Because of his outstanding qualities, St Pius V appointed him — even against his protests — bishop of Aleria in Corsica, and he was consecrated by St Charles in 1570.
The mission entrusted to him was certainly arduous. The conditions on the island were appalling: for seventy years it had not had a bishop; the population, reduced and impoverished, fed on herbs and acorns; there were about a thousand murders a year; churches served as sheepfolds and priests did not even know the rites of the Mass. In the episcopal city of Aleria, he could not find two habitable rooms; the cathedral existed only as walls. Having established himself at Corte, he began the visitation of the diocese, first attending to the priests; he gathered them in synods; in the third, he promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent and, in the meantime, founded his seminary and established his residence at Cervione. In addition to his episcopal duties, he devoted himself to all the ministries of a simple priest: catechesis to the people, lessons to his clerics, visits to the sick, and reconciliation of the hatreds and discord among families.
After twenty years of unheard-of toil, having refused the sees of Tortona and Genoa, he was obliged to accept that of Pavia in 1591; but he died there a year later, during a pastoral visitation, at Calosso in Asti. His body is venerated in the cathedral of Pavia. He was beatified by Benedict XIV in 1742 and canonized by Pius X in 1904. His feast is celebrated on 11 October.
Noteworthy among his printed works are his letters and episcopal constitutions; also: *Confessionale Fr. Hier. Savonarola*, Pavia 1567 (13 editions up to 1605); *Istruzione compendiosa*, Genoa 1571 (for the use of ordinands and confessors); *Dottrina del Catechismo Romano ridotto a nuovo modo più semplice e facile*, Pavia 1581; *De officiis et moribus Episcopi, Commentariolum*, Rome 1866.
C. Celestino Testore