ANILE, ANTONINO. - Physician, educator, and writer, among the most notable representatives of twentieth-century Catholic scientific literature, b. at Pizzo di Calabria on 20 Nov. 1869, d. at Raiano in 1943. A professor of anatomy at universities, he was several times a deputy for the Popular Party and, in the postwar period, Minister of Education in the two Facta Ministries (1922). His work, socially educational in character, is that of a naturalist and a poet; reacting against the legacy of nineteenth-century scientific materialism, he continually stresses the need to ascend from nature to God; indeed, one of his most significant works, Bellezza e verità delle cose, may be regarded as “a poetic-scientific illustration of the five ways of St. Thomas” (D. Mondrone).
Most important works: La salute del pensiero, Bari 1916; Nella scienza e nella vita, Bologna 1920; Poesie, complete collection, ibid. 1921; Vigilie di scienza e di vita, 2nd ed., Bari 1921; Sonetti religiosi, Bologna 1923; La cultura cattolica, Turin 1924; Nuovi sonetti religiosi, Milan 1931; Bellezza e verità delle cose, Florence 1935; Le ore sacre, Florence 1937; L'ombra della montagna, Milan 1939; Questo è l'uomo, Florence 1943.
D. Mondrone, Bellezza verità e poesia delle cose in A. A., in Scrittori al traguardo, II, Rome 1943, pp. 245-90.