ANTONINUS, Archbishop of FLORENCE, saint. — A Dominican of the Pierozzi family, born in Florence in March 1389, died at Montughi, near the same city, on 2 April 1459. The family environment inspired the frail boy with a love for piety and study, especially of law. Under the influence of the Blessed John Dominici, he entered the Dominican order in 1405, completing his novitiate at Cortona. From 1406 to 1409 he lived in the reformed convent at Fiesole, founded by Dominici. During the Pisan Schism, the observant Dominicans of Fiesole, loyal to Gregory XII, were forced to take refuge in various parts of Umbria, especially Foligno. After seven years of study—Antoninus, like Dominici, was largely self-taught—he was ordained priest at Cortona in 1413 and appointed vicar at Foligno in 1414. While facilitating the return of his brethren to Fiesole in 1418, he served as prior at Cortona until 1421, then held priorates at Fiesole (1421), Naples (S. Pietro Martire, 1424), and Rome (Minerva, 1430).
While in Naples he composed his first work, Omnis mortalium cura. In Rome he became known to Eugenius IV, elected in the Conclave of the Minerva, and was named auditor of the Rota. Among other duties, he worked to establish the fees of procurators and notaries. From 1435 to 1444, as vicar general of the observant Dominicans of central and southern Italy, he promoted regular observance. He also founded the celebrated convent of S. Marco, transferred from the Sylvestrines to the Dominicans in 1436. Cosimo de’ Medici, assisted by Michelozzo, rebuilt and enlarged the convent and church. S. Marco was endowed with two special treasures: the paintings of the Blessed Angelico and the library, which originated from a bequest of the humanist Niccolò Niccoli and subsidies from the Medici. In addition to his many spiritual and administrative duties, Antoninus assumed the priorate of S. Marco in 1439, whereupon he began his major works, the Summa and the Chronicles. Though not an official theologian, he was at least a witness to the Council of Florence. Moved by charity and social concern, in 1442 he established the Buonomini di S. Martino to assist the poor and afflicted.
Eugenius IV appointed him Archbishop of Florence to succeed Bartolomeo Zabarella (1445). This nomination surprised the Medici city and weighed heavily on Antoninus, but it proved a blessing for the Church and souls. Unable to evade the papal command, as he would have wished, he received episcopal consecration on 12 March 1446 at S. Domenico in Fiesole and took possession of the Florentine see the following day. Unmoved by philosophical and humanist trends, he devoted himself to pastoral care with the utmost diligence. He reorganized the diocese, presided as metropolitan at the Synod of 1451, conducted pastoral visitations, preached the word of God and administered the sacraments, zealously promoting moral reform, the formation of the clergy, spiritual direction, and conferences. He multiplied works of charity, especially for victims of the plague. Sent by the Florentines on diplomatic missions to Nicholas V, Callistus III, and Pius II, he received special assignments from the Roman Curia throughout Tuscany, such as the apostolic commission against usury and the promotion of the crusade entrusted to him by Callistus III. With extreme prudence he supported the civic party opposed to Medici dominance and in 1458 firmly defended Florentine liberty and constitution.
A master of legal questions, endowed with outstanding prudence and sound judgment, favoring moderate solutions, he assisted all who sought his counsel (Antoninus consiliorum). He left letters, spiritual treatises, chronicles, and works of practical theology of great utility, which enjoyed wide circulation.
His theological writings, though popular in character, are marked by discernment and assign their author an honorable place among the foremost Catholic moralists.
His remains were transferred from the archiepiscopal villa at Montughi and buried at S. Marco, where they are still venerated. Adrian VI canonized him on 31 May 1522, though the relevant bull was issued by Clement VII on 26 November of the following year. Feast day: 10 May.
WRITINGS AND DOCTRINE. —
I. Minor works
Under the title Confessiones are grouped three types of booklets: a) Defecerunt, in Latin (Florence 1473, etc.), Italian, and Spanish; b) Curam illius habe, a manual for confessors (Bologna 1472, etc.); c) Omnis mortalium cura, also called Specchio di coscienza, intended for the faithful (Florence 1475, etc.). De ornatu mulierum, on feminine luxury, written before 1437, was incorporated into the Summa, Part II. De excommunicationibus (Venice 1474) was likewise inserted into the Summa, Part III. The Responsiones Antonini ad LXIX quaestiones F. Dominici de Cathalonia, a legal consultation of about 1440, were appended in various editions of the Confessiones. The Trialogus de duobus discipulis euntibus in Emaus is a dialogued explanation of messianic prophecies (Florence 1480, etc.).In the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze (Magliabechiana, Conv. soppr. A. 8, 1750: the Quadragesimale Converte nos) and in the Riccardiana (Cod. 308) are found outlines and drafts of the saint’s sermons. A collection of 24 letters on various spiritual topics was published in Florence in 1859. L’Opera a ben vivere, dedicated to Dinora Tornabuoni and her sister Lucrezia, mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, expounds spiritual matters (ed. C. Angelini, 1926; French trans. by Thiérad-Baudrillart, Une règle de vie du XVe siècle, Paris 1921) and anticipates the Introduction à la vie dévote of St Francis de Sales.
II. Major works
The Summa moralis and the Chronicae (also Summa historiales), in the author’s intention, were to form a two-part work: one moral, the other historical. Early on, however, it became customary to separate these into two distinct works. The Summa moralis is the saint’s principal work and exercised great influence until 1600. “Important for its theological-moral and ethical-economic aspects, it pursues a more practical than theoretical aim and is therefore not arranged as a scientific system; nonetheless, in its severe form it gathers a vast body of theological knowledge” (M. Grabmann, Geschichte der katholischen Theologie, Milan 1939, p. 138). There are twenty complete editions from 1477 (Nuremberg and Venice) to 1740 (ed. P. Ballerini, Florence), and the last of the ten incomplete editions is by D. Remedelli and T. Mamachi (Florence 1741). The Chronicae, composed between 1440 and 1459, divided into three parts, twenty-four titles, and many sections, follow the pattern of similar medieval compilations, drawing on Sacred Scripture and other sources. The closer the narrative approaches the author’s own time, the more reliable and significant it becomes. Seventeen editions are recorded from 1484 (Nuremberg) to 1587 (Lyons), attesting to the work’s enduring popularity.BIBL.:
M. Grabmann, Geschichte der katholischen Theologie, Milano 1939.
G. Meersseman, Les plus anciens documents sur S. Antonin de Florence, in Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 1931, pp. 5-102.
G. Meersseman, S. Antonino e la sua opera legislativa, ibid., 1932, pp. 177-240.
G. Meersseman, S. Antonino e la sua opera legislativa, ibid., 1933, pp. 241-304.