ANDREW AVELLINO, Saint. — Born in 1521 at Castronuovo (now Castronuovo di S. Andrea, in the province of Potenza), from a noble local family, died in Naples on 10 November 1608. He was baptized with the name Lancellotto, which he bore until his entry among the Theatines. He was educated by a maternal uncle, an archpriest, and later in the schools of the nearby town of Senise. In 1537 he took the ecclesiastical habit and in 1545, in his hometown, became a priest. In 1547 he went to Naples to begin legal studies. Under the direction of the Jesuit Giacomo Laincz, he made the Spiritual Exercises in 1548. From this moment dates his “conversion,” in which, as is reported, a part was played by the compunction he felt for a slight lie that had escaped him during a debate (he was a lawyer in the ecclesiastical forum).
Around 1551, he was entrusted by Scipione Rebiba, vicar general of the archdiocese, with the reform of the female monastery of S. Arcangelo di Baiano, and in this office, for about forty years, he gave proof of his apostolic zeal, for which he even exposed himself to mortal threats. Having been the target of two assassination attempts, in 1556 he was struck in the face by two severe wounds, the perpetrator of which he never wished to denounce. Taken in to the Theatine house of S. Paolo Maggiore in Naples, he recovered almost miraculously. In 1556 he donned the habit of a novice, having as his master the Blessed Giovanni Marinoni (1490–1562); in 1558 he made his solemn profession. Elected superior of S. Paolo Maggiore in 1567, he established schools of philosophy and theology there. The general chapter, in 1570, sent him to Milan as vicar of the house of S. Maria presso S. Calimero, donated to the congregation by St Charles Borromeo (with whom A. had frequent relations and signs of esteem and affection). The same general chapter, in 1571, assigned him to S. Vincenzo in Piacenza. From the local bishop, the Blessed Paolo Burali, he was moreover called to direct the diocesan seminary, organized according to the recent norms of the Council of Trent, and to govern a monastery of penitent women. In Piacenza, where he also held the office of diocesan penitentiary, he remained until 1578, simultaneously serving three times as visitor of the Theatine houses of Lombardy. At this time, having felt the impulse to withdraw from active life and the ministry of confessor, he was dissuaded from this by the Venerable Battistina Vernazza, the Genoese mystical recluse. In 1578 he took charge of the house of S. Antonio in Milan and, in 1581, once again that of Piacenza. In 1582 the general chapter sent him to Naples, where in 1584 he was placed in charge of the two houses of S. Paolo Maggiore and the SS. Apostoli. In this city, after a bloody riot provoked by famine (May 1585), he succored the needs of the people and ordered a solemn penitential procession. In 1590 he carried out the visitation of the Neapolitan and Roman provinces of the Congregation. At this time, in Rome, he refused the episcopate offered to him by Gregory XIII.
Advanced in years, yet continuing assiduously in all his offices, including that of spiritual direction to which he had always devoted himself—among his penitents were noblemen and ladies of high rank and souls of intense religious life, such as the four Pale-scandalo sisters—he once again gave proof of his heroic generosity by pardoning and inducing relatives to pardon the murderer of his own nephew, Francesco Antonio Avellino (1593). On 10 November 1608, while beginning the celebration of Mass, he was struck by apoplexy and expired that same evening, at the age of 87. A learned man, well versed in theological studies, he left about 3,000 letters of spiritual direction, partly now lost (a little more than a thousand are included in the collection published in Naples in 1731–32, in 2 volumes) and various works, especially biblical expositions and discourses (published in Naples, 1733–34, in 5 volumes). A., who appears as one of the most effective and active agents of the Catholic Reformation in Italy, was beatified in 1624 by Urban VIII and canonized in 1712 by Clement XI.