ANGELO da CHIVASSO, blessed. — Famous Franciscan theologian, born in Chivasso (Piedmont), probably in 1411, of the noble and ancient Carletti family. Inclined to piety and endowed with a discerning intellect, he made great progress in the spiritual life and in his studies. Having graduated in theology and in both laws at the University of Bologna, he soon held very important offices in his homeland, so much so that he was appointed senator; but around 1441, already thirty years old, he renounced all civil offices and his considerable wealth in order to enter the Franciscan Order, in which he wished to have his name changed from Antonio to that of A.
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, and in the latter task he distinguished himself to such an extent that eminent persons, including Carlo I di Savoia, 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 appointed vicar general of all the Observants of the Cismontane family, an office he held for four triennia, namely in the years 1472–75, 1478–81, 1484–87, and 1490–93.
Most zealous for the pure observance of the rule of s. Francesco, he devoted great effort to preaching, at the order of Pope Sisto 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 various ecclesiastical dignities and prelacies. He wrote the celebrated Summa, called the Angelica after his name; a most useful work for confessors and moralists, it surpassed all others in general esteem. This earned him the hatred of Lutero, who ordered that the work be burned in 1520 in a public square together with the bull of Leone X and the Corpus of canon law.
Innocenzo VIII appointed A. nuncio and apostolic commissioner against the Waldensian heretics, who were spreading their doctrines and practices in Savoia and Piemonte. He devoted two years to this great undertaking; through his prudence and vigilance, and through preaching, conferences, and disputations, he obtained not only the conversion and public abjuration of many heretics, but also strengthened the Catholics of those regions in their faith.
Remarkable, too, was the work he accomplished on behalf of the oppressed poor, propagating the Monti di Pietà by word and writing: his principal foundations are those of Genoa and Savona, which had previously been the unchallenged domain of 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 Benedetto XIV. His feast is celebrated on 12 April.
His Summa casuum conscientiae was first published in 1486 at Chivasso itself; the 2nd ed., better known, is that of Venice of 1487, followed by others in almost every year of the same fifteenth century. He also wrote a Tractatus de restitutionibus, Alcalá 1562; a declaration Super bullis Sixti IV and other minor works.