ANTONIO da AQUILA. – Franciscan missionary, died on 22 August 1679. He studied Arabic at the missionary college of S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome, under the direction of Fr Tommaso da Novara, and departed for Egypt in 1630. He was first superior of the residence in Alexandria, then commissioner of the mission and guardian of Aleppo. After ten years he was summoned to Rome to teach Arabic at the college of S. Pietro in Montorio. The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide appointed him reviser of the Bible printed in Arabic; he was also procurator general of the Order for the missions. He published an Arabic grammar. He was the spiritual director of beato Carlo da Sezze, whom he suggested write the mystical work on the three ways.
BIBL.: A. Kleinhans, Historia studii linguae arabicae et collegii missionum O.F.M. in conventa ad S. Petrum in Monte Aureo erecti, Quarocchi 1930. Pancrazio Maarschalkerweerd