Andrew Avellino, Saint

ANDREW AVELLINO, Saint. - Born in 1521 at Castronuovo (now Castronuovo di S. Andrea, in the province of Potenza), into a noble family of the place, died at Naples on 10 Nov. 1608. He received at baptism the name Lancellotto, which he bore until his entry among the Theatines. He was educated by an uncle who was an archpriest and then in the schools of the nearby town of Senise. In 1537 he took the ecclesiastical habit and in 1545, in his native place, he became a priest. In 1547 he went to Naples to undertake the study of law. Under the direction of the Jesuit Giacomo Lainez, he made the spiritual exercises in 1548. From this moment his "conversion" is dated, in which a part was also played, as is related, by the compunction he felt for the slight lie that escaped him during a debate (he was a lawyer in the ecclesiastical forum).

Around 1551, he was charged by Scipione Rebiba, vicar general of the archdiocese, with the reform of the female monastery of S. Arcangelo di Baiano, and in this office, which lasted for some years, he gave the measure of his apostolic zeal, for which he also exposed himself to mortal threats. Made the target of two attacks, in 1556 he was struck in the face by two terrible wounds, whose author he never wished to denounce. Received into the Theatine house of S. Paolo Maggiore in Naples, he recovered almost miraculously. In 1556 he took the novice's habit, having as his master the blessed Giovanni Marinoni (1490-1562); in 1558 he made his solemn profession. Elected in 1567 superior of S. Paolo Maggiore, he established there schools of philosophy and theology. 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 dealings and signs of esteem and affection). The same general chapter, in 1571, assigned him to S. Vincenzo of Piacenza. By the bishop of the place, the blessed Paolo Burali, he was furthermore called to direct the diocesan seminary, established according to the recent norms of the Council of Trent, and to govern a monastery of penitent women. At Piacenza, where he also held the office of penitentiary of the diocese, he remained until 1578, at the same time holding three times the post of visitor of the Theatine houses of Lombardy. In this time, having felt the impulse to withdraw from the active life and from the ministry of confessor, he was dissuaded from it by the venerable Battistina Vernazza, the Genoese cloistered mystic. In 1578 he took over the governance of the house of S. Antonio in Milan and, in 1581, once again that of the house of Piacenza. In 1582 the general chapter sent him to Naples, where in 1584 he was placed over the two houses of S. Paolo Maggiore and of the SS. Apostoli. In this city, after a bloody tumult provoked by famine (May 1585), he came to the aid of the people's need and proclaimed a solemn expiatory procession. In 1590 he carried out the visitation of the Neapolitan and Roman provinces of the Congregation. In this time, at Rome, he refused the episcopate, offered to him by Gregory XIII.

Having reached an advanced age, continuing briskly all his offices, among them the particular one of spiritual direction to which he had always attended - his penitents were lords and ladies of high condition and souls of intense religious life, such as the four Palescandalo sisters - he gave yet another proof of his heroic generosity, pardoning and inducing his relatives to pardon the killer of his own nephew Francesco Antonio Avellino (1593). On 10 Nov. 1608, while he was beginning the celebration of Mass, he was struck by apoplexy, and passed away on the evening of the same day, at the age of 87. A learned man and versed in theological studies, he left about 3,000 letters of spiritual direction, in part now lost (a little more than a thousand are comprised in the collection, published at Naples in 1731-32, in 2 volumes) and various works, especially biblical expositions and discourses (published at Naples, 1733-34, in 5 volumes). A., who appears as one of the most vigorous and active architects of the Catholic Reform in Italy, was beatified in 1624 by Urban VIII and canonized in 1712 by Clement XI. His feast falls on 10 Nov.

Nello Vian