BLESSED ANGELO OF CHIVASSO. - Renowned Franciscan theologian, born in Chivasso (Piedmont) probably in the year 1411, from the noble and ancient Carletti family. Inclined to piety and gifted with a keen intellect, he made great progress in spiritual life and studies. Having earned degrees in theology and in both civil and canon law at the University of Bologna, he soon occupied very important offices in his homeland, to the point of being named senator; but around the year 1441, already in his thirties, he renounced all civil offices and his considerable wealth to enter the Franciscan Order, in which he took the name Angelo, replacing his baptismal name of Antonio.
His superiors entrusted him with the chairs of theology and canon law, which he held for several years; at the same time, he devoted himself to the ministry of preaching and confession, in which latter task he distinguished himself to such a degree that prominent figures, including Charles I of Savoy, entrusted him with the direction of their souls. Elected superior of the province of Genoa in the chapter of 1462, at the General Congregation of Aquila in 1472 he was named vicar general of all the Observant friars of the Cisalpine family, a position he held for four triennia, i.e., between the years 1472–75, 1478–81, 1484–87, and 1490–93.
Most zealous for the strict observance of the Rule of St. Francis, he exerted great effort in preaching, at the command of Pope Sixtus IV, the great crusade of 1480–1481 against the Turks, who had occupied the city of Otranto, from which they were later driven out again. He refused several ecclesiastical dignities and prelatures. He wrote the well-known Summa, called by his name the *Summa Angelica*; a work most useful for confessors and moralists, which surpassed all others in general esteem. This earned him the hatred of Luther, who in 1520 had the work burned in public square together with Leo X’s bull and the *Corpus Iuris Canonici*.
Innocent VIII appointed him nuncio and apostolic commissioner against the Waldensian heretics, who were spreading their doctrines and practices in Savoy and Piedmont. He devoted two years to this great enterprise; with his prudence and vigilance, through preaching, conferences, and disputations, he not only brought about the conversion and public abjuration of many heretics but also strengthened the faith of Catholics in those regions.
Remarkable also was the work he accomplished on behalf of the oppressed poor, promoting with words and writings the *Monti di Pietà*; his principal foundations are those of Genoa and Savoy, already domains untouched by usurers. In Upper Italy he was called “defender of the faith, extirpator of heresies, protector of the poor.” He died on 11 April 1495 in the convent of Cuneo, where he soon received religious veneration, confirmed in 1753 by Benedict XIV. His feast is celebrated on 12 April.
His *Summa casuum conscientiae* was first published in 1486 in Chivasso itself; the second edition, better known, is that of Venice from 1487, followed by others in almost every year of the same fifteenth century. He also wrote a *Tractatus de restitutionibus* (Alcalá, 1562), a commentary *Super bullis Sixti IV*, and other minor works.